Ultradimension Neptunia: The Wandering CPU
by Bluebottlejr
Summary: At the beginning there was only one nation, but when that fell the whole of Gamindustri was plunged into ruin. Centuries passed and civilisation began to rebuild. Into this comes a tale of friendship, trouble, mistrust, war and love. From the north to the south of Gamindustri the presence of a young lad would shape the future of this troubled world. Arc 1: Rise to Prominence.
1. First Encounter

**Ultradimension Neptunia**

 **The Wandering CPU**

 **Chapter 1: First Encounter**

A light, cool breeze blew through the small town, adding to the cold weather that was already present there. A dimming silence reigned over the settlement, barely a sound could be heard save for the rustling of trees, the wind, a few birds and the occasional dog who barked at anyone who came too close to them. No cars, no bike horns, not even bare whispers of doors opening and shutting, everything was almost like a ghost town. Yet it was not, far from it in fact, for there were many people who lived in this cold town, far in the northern parts of Gamindustri where the environment always appeared to be in a mix of late autumn and mid winter, children would play in the snow or in the piles of red leaves that would pile onto each other when the wind would cast them off the trees. This was how most, if not all, people in Gamindustri lived, in small city state-like towns and villages where they would look out for themselves against nature, hoping for the appearance of a divine being to lead them into a prosperous age once more: a Goddess, a CPU.

It had not always been like this, Gamindustri had been united as a whole nation once, but that was centuries ago. Back then there was only one goddess, one CPU, one nation, but that was all over, and for good so the historians would say. The CPU who once ruled this nation – Tari – had gone mad with power, so mad in fact that she destroyed her own nation in a fit of rage due to her citizens loosing their faith in her abilities to lead. This CPU, later dubbed to historians as the 'CPU of Chaos' due to everyone forgetting her name, would disappear from history, never to be spoken of again. From then on the humans of Gamindustri had ruled themselves, trying their very best to make the world a better place, but the call for a CPU to lead them still echoed in their minds, they failed to recognise the need for a goddess to rule them, to protect them. This division would see what was left of Tari shatter into nothing and even more blood was split as humans now fought each other rather than a divine being.

Eventually, after years of war, there came a truce. Those who believed that humanity should be guided by a CPU separated from those who believed that humanity should rule its own destiny, these two groups would later spread out across Gamindustri and form colonies and town where they prospered, but those who were against CPUs dwindled in number and disappeared from history as their former goddess had. After many years people eventually found out that anyone could become a CPU if they swallowed a CPU Memory, these small stones contained the essence of a divine and could empower anyone who finds it with the power to become a CPU, but it tested those who took such stones. Those who were found to be unworthy were turned into hideous beasts and roamed the land, suffering from the pain of knowing their past life yet unable to do anything about it. Those who passed became CPUs. During the centuries there had been several CPUs, all of them goddesses, but just about all of them faded into obscurity and their nations fell into ruin, just as Tari had once done before. Eventually CPU Memories became rare and a prized item.

This was the stage where the folk in the cold – almost freezing town at times – in the northern lands found themselves in. The town was run by a mayor and a small council of wealthy locals, the idea of a CPU presiding over them and guiding them had been cast aside, they proclaimed that they needed no CPUs since they had all failed in their duties to protect humanity, therefore they would look out for themselves. While talks of having a CPU were not suppressed they were not encouraged, especially in front of the council members. The town flourished, yet not everyone had the same prosperity as others. One such family found themselves without not a lot in life except themselves, at least that was what it looked like.

During the late morning chill a young boy opened the light red door of his house and stepped outside, his breath was visible as he breathed in and out, when the young boy looked at the small breath clouds he chuckled as he swiped his hands through it. The young boy had soft, short ice blue hair, yellow eyes that looked almost snake-like and fair skin, he wore a brown jacket with a grey shirt underneath, dark blue pants and black shoes. He did not look any older than even or eight years old. As he was about to close the door he heard a booming voice coming from one of the upstairs rooms within the house.

"Where are you going?" the booming voice asked, it belonged to a male a few decades older than the boy.

"I-I'm just going down to the park," the boy replied nervously. "I'll be back soon, dad."

"Hmm, fine then, but when you get back you have to help your sister with cleaning the dishes, then I want you to clear all of that snow out of the garden. Got it?"

"I-I know, got it, dad."

The young boy closed the door and walked onto the street in the direction of the park, hoping to get there before too many people occupied the area. The street gutters were filled with fresh snow and leaves, not many people bothered cleaning it up due to the weather conditions, if they cleaned the streets and gutters one day and woke up the next it would all be filled up again, so no one bothered with it any more. There was hardly anyone around the streets that led to the park, so the young boy found himself in a better mood than before. He did not like being near people, it was not because he hated them or anything akin to that, but it was because of their opinion towards him. No one liked how his eyes almost resembled that of a snake, it made them treat him as an outsider, some even went as far as to say that he was a monster, not a human. It almost made the young boy cry, sometimes he did.

When the boy reached the park after walking down a few blocks he was relieved by the fact that there was nobody around, he sighed with relief and made his way over to the equipment, mainly the swings. He stepped across the snowy ground and sat on the leather swing, ignoring the chilling feeling that shivered through his body as the cold seeped through him. The boy clasped his hands over the cold, steel chains and began to swing himself back and forward, he sighed and accepted the wind blowing onto his face, his hair, despite being shortish, blew in the breeze, a peaceful state had fallen over the young boy. Eventually the cold breeze slipped away towards the north, leaving a cool temperature behind, which the boy gladly accepted. Some people, especially the children, would always complain about the weather they received, but the young boy welcomed it, he was a fan of the cold.

After swinging about for ten to twenty minutes the young boy quickly realised that he was not the only one in the park any more, in fact there were several more kids running about and playing games, all of them avoiding him. The boy locked glances with one kid and swiftly looked away when the other kid looked at him with fear and disgust, it was the usual response the boy would get whenever he looked at someone. Soon enough as more children and their parents began to fill up the park the young boy got back onto his feet and quickly made his escape without drawing too much attention towards himself, not that anyone would have minded it.

When the young boy successfully got away from the crowd of children and their parents he stopped and breathed deeply for air, he fell to his knees and grabbed some leaves, crushing them with his hands. "Why… why do they hate me?" he asked himself, his voice filled with complete sadness and sorrow. "I'm not a bad person, I'm not, really. Why do I even bother getting up in the morning? Why do I bother with anything?"

The young boy sniffed and wiped the tears away before leaning up against a nearby tree, he looked out ahead of him and saw the lake, its water was cold and seemed inhospitable yet life thrived in the freezing depths of the lake, fish who had involved over the last few centuries had adapted to the weather and have thrived. The boy found evolution to be utterly fascinating and he would research about it whenever he found himself in a library, although he was not in them for long, much to his misfortune.

The boy sighed and looked over to his left, he gazed at the large bushland surrounding a tree with a thick trunk, he grinned and made his way over to the area. The boy arrived at a thickish and tall wall of bushes that was overshadowed by the tree, his right hand entered the bush and he moved aside a thin area that made up the door to an entrance, the boy moved into the pathway and closed the bush-like door behind him. Once the boy made his way through the bushy path he entered an open space surrounded by the tall, thick bushes with the tree in the centre of the space, its branches shadowing the area around it, a few planks of wood and tin were strapped between the tree and a small portion of the bushes, small timber columns kept the planks in place. A container made of steel was up against the roofed area, when the boy peered inside he pulled out a book on geography – he was always interested with the layout of Gamindustri.

"Alrighty then, time to relax," the boy said to himself as he leaned up against the tree, opened the book and began to read away to his hearts delight. After a short while a strong breeze blew through the area, causing the boy to hold up an arm over his face to protect himself from any incoming loose leaves and branches. When his sight returned he saw a small, red and white object flying through the air, the wind had taken someone's possession again. _It's probably some sort of hat again, it's usually hats._ _People really need to do something about it._ The boy thought, paying no heed to the hat as it floated down onto a branch just above him, he tried to ignore it but the object stole his full attention. The boy stood up, put down his book and grabbed the hat after he climbed the tree to get it, he then fell back onto the ground with a loud thud, but he got the hat.

"Well, this is a weird look," he mumbled to himself as he turned the hat around, gazing at the design of it. The hat was of a round shape with a white top, red marks around the side and black lining, a circle was in the centre at the front. "Haven't seen this before, or anything like it. I could go back out there to look for the owner, but then I would have to deal with the people out there." He mulled it over for a moment before he finally decided what to do. "Alright then, I'll try to find the owner, maybe I can show people that I'm not a bad person after all."

He left his sanctuary and emerged back into the park, the happy cries of children ran through his ears as he quietly approached the main area of the park, the hat held firmly in his hands. When he finally walked into the main area he was met with the cold stares of children and adult alike, each stare felt as if they pierced his very soul. The boy did his best to walk up to each person he could get near and present the hat to them, asking if it belonged to them, but he was met with glaring expressions from parents and most of the children would hide, some even walked away as soon as the boy even began to approach them. One by one they avoided him or refused to answer his question, the few who did answer him would usually do so rudely, especially the children who thought they were 'cool'.

The young boy felt dejected and defeated, he walked away with the hat still in his hands and a depressed expression on his face, he had failed. At least that was what it seemed like at first. As he started to make his way back to his sanctuary he came across a girl who looked around his age, she was leaning over a tree trunk with her legs flailing around in the air, her dress barely keeping her backside covered due to the movement of her legs. "Damn it! Where the hell did it go?! I'll smash whoever stole it!" she swore as she got back onto her feet, her back was to the young boy so she failed to see him.

The boy cautiously walked up to her, he could feel the stares and glares of onlookers nearby drilling into him, but he did his best to ignore it. When he stood behind the strange girl he cleared his throat and coughed, the girl turned around and stared sternly at the young boy. "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?" she pointed out.

Much to the young boy's shock the girl seemed to ignore his eyes, he stood there, shocked at the revelation. The girl, however, seemed disinterested in his presence and was about to resume her search when she suddenly noticed the hand in his hands. "Hold on, where did you find that?" she asked him.

This broke him out of his stupor. "What? Oh, r-right. I found this out that way." The boy pointed over at the direction from where he came. "F-Found it in a tree branch. H-H-Here."

The young girl took the hat and beamed a bright smile at the boy as she took her hat and placed it on her head, causing him to break out in a slight blush. "Thanks a lot, this hat means a lot to me." The girl had brown hair that was jaw length, blue eyes and fair skin, she wore a red dress with fold-skirt and a leafy pattern along the bottom, it had a black tank top piece with an accessory with red lining and a blue sphere in the centre with thin strings, at the top of the dress was a golden flower piece with a black strap around her waist along with a thin white jacket.

The boy smiled, but he could not get over the stares that were piercing into him, the boy felt more nervous than ever. Eventually his nerve broke. "SORRYIHAVETOGONOWBYE!" And with that the young boy turned around and ran back into the eastern part of the park, leaving many onlookers pleased that he was gone as well as some confused ones as well. The girl, on the other hand, was surprised at the sudden change and merely stood there, unsure about whether to go after him or stay where she was, the young girl also did not like the looks she was receiving from everyone else. In the end she ran after the young boy, hoping to know what was wrong with him.

The young boy, meanwhile, ran back to his sanctuary, hoping to put some distance between him and the onlookers, he did not like leaving the girl there without saying a proper goodbye though. He sighed and fell to the ground, his back against a tree that was situated close to the entrance of his sanctuary. _That was too embarrassing, all those people just looking at us… that was scary._ _Pity I didn't get to know her name, she was kinda nice_ _to me._ _I wonder if I'll see her again?_ He soon got his wish after ten minutes of breathing in and out over and over again, once he had calmed down enough the boy gazed up and saw the young, brown hair coloured girl, she was looking at him with a concerned expression.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, her stoic face concealing her concern. "Why did you run away like that? Did I do something wrong?"

The boy shook his head. "No, i-it was just those people back there, all the s-s-staring, it… it freaks me out." He started to shiver from fright and chatter his teeth.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure of it." She knelt down next to him and smiled. Never before had anyone been as caring as she had to him, and they barely even knew each other.. "Hey, what's your name?"

The boy was caught off guard with that question, no one had ever asked for his name, nor had he ever expected it. "A-A-Aetius, my name is Aetius. What's yours?"

"I'm Blanc, nice to meet you, Aetius." She sat down next to the young boy and looked at the lake before them. "Nice place, isn't it?"

The boy nodded in agreement. "It sure is, I always come here whenever I can." The two remained silent as they sat next to each other, only the sounds of birds and the rustling of trees could be heard, the two young children did not say anything for the next few minutes. That was until Blanc looked over at Aetius, more specifically at his hair, she then firmly stared at his ice blue hair and ran her fingers through it, her face remaining expressionless. The young boy, however, was more than calm. "B-B-B-Blanc?! Wh-Wh-What are you doing?!"

Blanc retracted her hands and looked at Aetius. "Sorry, but I couldn't help it, you have nice hair."

Aetius looked away and clutched his legs tightly. "Th-Thanks, I got it from my mother."

"Is she a nice person?"

Aetius shrugged. "I don't know, she isn't around. Dad says she's gone somewhere, but he won't say where."

"Maybe she'll turn up someday, like my father might one day." Blanc then took a closer look at Aetius' eyes, she looked confused and bewildered as to why they looked like they belonged to a snake. "Um, Aetius, sorry if this is personal, but why are your eyes… well, like a snake?"

The young boy looked back at Blanc, his expression was one mixed with depression, sadness and an overall unknown. "I wish I knew, no other family member has eyes like mine as far as I know. Do I look like a monster? Do I scare you too?"

Blanc gently patted Aetius on the head with a small smile on her face. "You're not a monster, you're just misunderstood is all." She looked at a small watch that she had around her wrist and sighed. "Dammit, I have to go now or my mum will be angry again. Sorry, Aetius, I have to go."

"Alright then. Bye, Blanc." As the young girl stood up and began to walk away Aetius spoke again. "Will I see you again?"

Blanc turned around and smiled. "I think so, this town is small and we like this area so I'm sure it's highly likely that we'll bump into each other again. See you then, Aetius."

As Blanc disappeared into the distance Aetius was left to his own devices and thoughts, he smiled to himself as his thoughts turned to the young girl known as Blanc, she was the only person to see him as another human being. He thought of her as a great person, whether they were friends or not he did not know however. But he did not care, he just smiled away as he stood up and made his way home. _I do hope I get to see her again, she's an interesting person, and I don't want to loose the only possible friend I have around here. I'm sure we will meet again._

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, I know, some of you are probably thinking: 'Hey, Bluebottlejr, why are you starting another story when you've already got two going on? B-Baka!' - well, minus the baka of course. The reason is because I got an idea a while back and I just could not contain myself any longer, The Rising Darkness is almost reaching the finale sooner or later (there will be a sequel to it however) while Subject 13: Mars is going along smoothly with irregular updates but said updates are starting to become a bit more common.**

 **Future chapters will also be small, in fact nearly all of the chapters in the first arc will be short, containing around 2000 to almost 4000 words or somewhere in between. At any rate, I'm glad I got this out, I've always wondered what the lives of the Ultradimension CPUs were like before they became goddesses. The first arc will be essentially a slice of life while the second will have more chapter and be much longer, I'm sure you will all know why. If you have any suggestions or requests please inform me, have a great day and may a car never run your foot over.**


	2. Friends

**Chapter 2: Friends**

Aetius sat underneath the large branches of a tree in the park, the young boy had his arms wrapped around his legs, his knees were close to his face, his gaze was set upon the happy and cheerful families that were around the park playground equipment, their expressions pierced the boy's psyche deeply. It had been several days since he had met Blanc, but she had not been at the park since then, it made him rather depressed that the idea of a possible friend was out the window. Aetius looked up and gazed at whoever strayed near him, the very sight of his snake-like eyes were enough to unintentionally frighten anyone off. The glaring looks from the rest of the kids and their parents, as well as seeing no one come up to him, were enough to convince the young boy that Blanc was not going to turn up again. He got up onto his feet and slowly made his way to his sanctuary.

Normally Aetius would be at home completing his chores, but today was different, instead he was out and about in the park, hoping that Blanc would turn up. The young boy was having a bad time at home, the constant arguing with his twin sister and his barrage of questions towards his father were enough for some form of retribution, mainly at his father's instigation. Aetius was given most of his sister's chores and was tasked with re-cleaning most if not all of the house they lived in, clearly his father was not terribly kind to him. However, Aetius managed to convince his father to let him off for the day, until tomorrow of course. That was how Aetius ended up in the park in the early afternoon, wasting his time away while trying to see if Blanc would ever show up.

 _She's never going to show up, is she? And after all that short time we spent together too. Seems like everyone and everything leaves me at some point. Mum, where are you? I want you back, I need you._ Aetius thought as he walked down the dirt path that led to the lake, his mind turning towards the mother he never knew, in fact he did not even know what she looked like apart from the ice blue hair that his father said she had. The young boy rubbed his eyes as a breeze blew past him, sending dirt and leafs onto his face. He groaned as he rubbed the dirt away before looking down at his fingers, his thoughts turned towards his eyes. _I wonder if my mother has these eyes, it would make sense I suppose, dad doesn't have them. But why doesn't my sister have them then?_

His thoughts were cut short by the sounds of rage filled shouting and laughter, from what Aetius could hear – and he was very good at hearing – it sounded as if it was coming from a small area just off the dirt track to his right. The young boy swiftly ran over towards the sound, running through bushes, tall grass and bypassed large tree roots, until he arrived at the source. To his complete surprise he saw a small group of kids, mainly filled with boys, laughing and poking sticks at a young girl who was hanging upside down by a rope in one of the trees, the girl had a savage bloodlust look to her and a shadow had crept over her face, one of her eyes stood out to do it being completely red, expressing her rage. She yelled at the kids with vulgar words while holding her red and white dress with her hands to cover up what she was wearing underneath.

"GRRAAAHH! Screw the lot of you! When I get outta here you're all gonna be eating through a straw!" the young girl threatened the group, almost letting go of her dress in an attempt to hit those who were nearby.

"Blanc?!" Aetius blurted out, completely in shock at the scene.

The focus of attention was taken away from Blanc and directed towards Aetius, who had inadvertently made himself the centre of attention with the group. The other kids stopped what they were doing and stared at Aetius, the looks the young boy received were a mix of disgust, hatred and overall disdain, although this was not new for Aetius. What was new though was that one of the kids in the group approached the boy and grinned at him, the grinning kid had matted dark grey hair and bright brown eyes, he was wearing a red and blue shirt with cargo coloured pants, his shoes were white with dirt all over it. As he stood in front of Aetius the young boy could not help but feel a little intimidated by the grey haired kid, after all, Aetius was shorter than him as well as rather shy.

"Hey, snake eyes, what're you doing here?" the grey haired kid asked, his expression turning into one full of curiosity. "And how do you know little miss troublemaker over here?"

"Little miss troublemaker? What do you mean?"

The grey haired kid pointed at Blanc, who was by now surprised to see Aetius. "This girl here is the troublemaker maker that I'm going on about. She messed up our marble match as well as yelling and cursing at me and my friends, not only that but she has been messing around with us for weeks. What we're doing here is just some simple revenge."

"But… isn't that a bit mean?"

The grey haired kid chuckled as soon as Aetius had closed his mouth, the chuckle then turned into a laugh, he held his gut and leaned down as he laughed uncontrollably. Aetius stared nervously as the kid, even the rest of the group appeared to be a bit worried for the mental status of their supposed 'leader', Blanc too looked concerned, but mainly for her own safety. The grey haired kid finally stopped his maddening laughter and he grinned at Aetius. "Mean? Vengeance isn't mean, it's just karma, but you may see it as that. Haven't you ever wanted revenge against all those who shun you every single day? Haven't you ever wanted to get even with those who hate you for what you are? Well?"

The young boy was silent, instead opting to stare at the ground to avoid eye contact with the vengeance-seeking kid before him, when he finally answered it surprised the grey haired kid, and all those around them, including Blanc. "No, I don't seek vengeance. While I might dislike how others view me I won't hold a grudge just because of that, I can't help it if I look like this; I don't know why I have snake-like eyes but I'm not going to hold it against other people."

The grey haired kid stared at Aetius, wondering if he was serious or not. "Seriously? You've been harassed for goodness knows how long and you don't even want to get revenge at least once in your life?" the grey haired kid asked, bewildered at what Aetius was saying.

The young boy shook his head. "No, not even once, I just don't like that sort of thing. Now, er… c-can you let Blanc go, p-please?"

The grey haired kid looked back at Blanc and sighed deeply before returning his gaze to Aetius. "You know what, fine, you can have your damn friend back. Not worth the effort to argue anyway." He then motioned for his group to follow him back up the dirt track, leaving Aetius and Blanc by themselves, the young girl was still handing upside down from the tree, much to her utter annoyance.

"Oi, get me down already! I'll pummel you into the dirt if you don't!" Blanc demanded, her rage intensifying. But the group failed to heed her angry calls, instead Aetius answered the call by running over to her and tried his best to reach the rope, but he failed in that task. Blanc growled at him and pointed over at where the end of the rope was tied up. "How 'bout you use your brain instead of just doing things?!"

"R-Right, sorry," Aetius apologetically said as he ran over to his left where the rope was tied around a tree trunk, his hands had a hard time attempting to untie the complicated knot and he was forced to listen to the angry sounds of Blanc as a result. Eventually he pulled the knot apart and the rope came undone, but it resulted in Blanc falling to the ground and smashing onto the snowy grass with a thud before the young boy could catch her.

"Grrrr, could you be any more clumsy?" the young girl asked with a threatening tone as she got onto her knees and rubbed the back of her head.

"S-Sorry, Blanc," Aetius apologies weakly, scratching the back of his head as a guilty expression formed on his face, he gazed at the ground and kicked away some of the dirt as silence reigned over them. Aetius began to stammer and looked away, to which Blanc sighed and walked up close to him.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked him, her patience had grown thin due to recent events.

The young boy continued to stammer words that Blanc could not understand, until finally he said something. "SORRYIGOTTAGOBYEBLANC!" Aetius then ran off back onto the main dirt path, leaving only snow, dirt and a very confused Blanc behind.

"H-Hey! Hold up!" Blanc called out, confused as to why Aetius ran off in a hurry. With a deep sigh she took off after him, hoping not to loose sight of him as the young boy ran away quickly towards the lake. Initially Blanc did not know why she was following him at first, then her thoughts moved from her own motives to that of Aetius' mental state, knowing that there was something wrong with him.

Meanwhile, Aetius had made his way to the cold lake, he was bent over and out of breath as he stared at his reflection, he stared at his eyes and grimaced when he saw his snake-like eyes staring back at him. To him they looked menacing and full of anger, as if they were targeting their next prey for a killer strike, yet he did not feel that way, in fact it was quite the opposite. The young boy sighed and glanced away sadly, depressed about the fact that he looked like a monster just because of the odd eyes that he possessed. However, if he had the choice to have either normal human eyes or snake-like eyes he leaned more towards the snake eyes, mainly because he noticed that his current eyes allowed him to perceive everything around him more keenly than everyone else, Aetius thought he could even catch a faint glimpse of some sort of heat signals from all those who walked by him if he squinted his eyes and concentrated carefully.

"Just what am I? Am I even human? Does my dad see me as a monster? Does Blanc see me in that way too despite all she said when we first met?" Aetius questioned himself depressingly. He gently touched his face and continued to stare at his reflection, the young boy could feel the sadness building up within his heart, the thought of everyone hating him just because he looked different almost brought him to tears. As Aetius fell to his knees and wiped his face, hating himself for being weak he heard the sounds of feet running through the snow and leaves towards him, the boy turned his head and saw Blanc running towards him. The young, brown haired girl looked exhausted and completely worn out from what happened previously as well as due to the running. When she locked eyes with Aetius the boy noticed how she would glance at him for a few seconds before trying to look at him without staring at his eyes.

"Why did you run off just before?" Blanc asked him, approaching the young boy slowly as she recovered her breath.

Aetius looked away back towards the lake, a depressed expression across his face. "S-Sorry, Blanc, I just get really nervous around other people. Again, I'm sorry for running off like that."

Blanc sighed as she sat down next to Aetius, her legs laying across the snowy grass while her hand were by her side on the ground to keep herself up. "Don't worry about it, Aetius, it just means that you have to get use to people is all. Speaking about that, are you nervous around others because of how they view you or how you believe they view you?"

The young boy nodded as he finally got off his knees and sat down properly, his legs crossed before him. "Just about everyone I meet is either afraid of me or just hate me, even both. I can't help it if I'm nervous, it just comes naturally now." The boy then sighed and his knees rose to rest underneath his chin, he stared out towards the near frozen lake and watched as the fish swam around in the freezing water before returning his attention back towards Blanc. "Why don't you make fun of me like everyone else? Why are you different?"

Blanc stared directly at him with her expressionless face, making Aetius flinch slightly. "I'm different than the rest because of an important lesson my mum taught me. She said that I should accept all different types of people and get to know them better, and make friends with them. Heh, who knew that my mother could be so wrong in many ways. No matter how hard I try to be nice to others I just cannot make friends with them, hell, they go out of their way just to annoy me, you seem to be the exception however."

"Then does that mean your mum was correct about her lesson after all? I mean, we're being f-f-friendly, right? That means your mother was right, kinda anyway," Aetius explained to Blanc, making the brown haired girl stare at him with a surprised look. Eventually she began to chuckle, her expression becoming light and cheerful as as result.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, and so was my mum. Thanks, Aetius," Blanc chuckled in response. The sound of her chuckling was surprisingly soothing and calming, making Aetius blush and break out in a small smile of his own. However, Blanc continued to talk soon afterwards and ask a question, which made the young boy even more embarrassed. "So far you're a really nice person, although you are timid. Hmm… hey, do you want to be friends with me?"

Aetius blushed madly and began to stammer uncontrollably as he stared back at Blanc, who was looking surprised at the young boy's reaction. "F-F-F-Friends?! Wh-Wh-why d-do you want to be f-friends with me?" he asked, stammering away nervously as if he was in the middle of a mental breakdown, twiddling his fingers.

"Well, we are getting along pretty well, plus we don't have any friends so that's another reason. Y-You don't have to be my friend, but I wouldn't mind being friends with someone as weird as you," Blanc explained, blushing slightly as she looked away back towards the lake, this did not escape the notice of Aetius however.

At any rate Aetius was happy about the suggestion and eagerly accepted it. "Al-Alright then, Blanc, I-I'd like to be your f-friend, I mean it." Then he beamed a big smile at Blanc, catching her off guard. The young girl blushed brightly as she looked back at Aetius for a short moment, Blanc then glanced away to hide her burning red face, embarrassed that she was even blushing at the sight of Aetius smiling; for some reason seeing him smile was one of the brightest things she had seen. The young boy looked surprised as he stared at Blanc. "Huh? What's wrong, Blanc?"

"Wha?! Oh, n-nothing, nothing at all, Aetius. Don't worry about me," Blanc replied, attempting to reassure the young boy that nothing was wrong, hoping to hide her red, embarrassed face. She then attempted to change the subject. "A-Anyway, since we're now friends, can you tell me what you do around here? There doesn't seem like a lot to do around this lake besides reading in peace and quiet."

"Hmm, well, how about I show you?" Aetius suggested as he stood up. "Follow me, I'm going to show you something that only I know of."

Blanc stood up and followed Aetius as he walked over towards a large hedge in a slow pace, admiring the cool breeze that blew past, sending red leafs flying past them, one red leaf collided with Aetius' face and blinded him. The young boy stumbled around in a frightened mood and flailed around, crying out in fear as he had no idea what was going on. Blanc, meanwhile, struggled to laugh out loud, believing that the whole scene was more than funny; it was an interesting scene for the young girl to see as Aetius flailed around. But as the boy flailed his arms around he got closer and closer to the freezing lake, edging closer to falling in. As Aetius ripped the leaf off his face and threw it away he saw how close to the edge of the lake he was, but as he flailed around and cried out as he began to fall in.

"Wh-Wha?! H-Hey!" Aetius called out as he began to fall over the edge and into the cold, freezing water beside him, he closed his eyes and began to accept his fate. But he never fell in. The young boy opened his eyes and saw Blanc holding his left hand with her right hand, a heavily concerned expression adorned her face.

"Hang on! Don't struggle and stop flailing around!" Blanc called out to him as she pulled the boy away from the edge of the freezing lake, she managed to pull him away from it and together the two landed on the ground away from the water. As Aetius breathed in and out raggedly Blanc turned to him and immediately scowled him. "The hell were you thinking, flailing around so close to the water like that?! You could have fallen in and froze to death or something!"

The snake-eyed boy wrapped his arms around his legs as he rested his chin against his knees, he attempted to hide his face from Blanc due to sheer embarrassment and fear of being ridiculed by his new, and only, friend. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I just got startled by that leaf is all," Aetius explained as best he could. "I-It's stupid I know, but I get afraid of things easily, guess that's another reason why I'm bullied all the time."

Blanc sighed and patted Aetius on the head, a small smile breaking out across her face. "Hey, don't worry about it,. Also, sorry if I sounded harsh before, I was just worried about you is all, plus I get angry easily for any reason. Heh, I guess that's why I have no friends – besides you, of course."

Aetius appeared to be relieved as he stood up, a faint smile had now replaced his expression as he pointed back towards the large hedges. "Thnaks, Blanc. A-Anyway, I still have to show you my secret spot. Wanna check it out?"

The young girl nodded. "Of course. You were going to show me it before you almost fell into the lake, if you remember." Regardless, Blanc stood up and followed Aetius as he led her to his sanctuary within the hedges. Yet again another cool breeze blew past them, kicking up the red leafs on the ground, luckily for the two of them none decided to stick onto their faces this time. The two of them walked around a large, wizened tree and arrived at the hedge, then Aetius reached into the undergrowth and opened a door made into the bushy hedge. The boy looked around and beckoned Blanc to follow him as he began to crawl through the tunnel. When they emerged Blanc was astounded by the tranquillity of the glade behind the hedges; the small sanctuary, with its large and singular tree, put the young girl's mind at ease, as if the area was in another world entirely.

Aetius looked over at Blanc and saw her stare at the sanctuary with wonder. "Feeling at ease with everything?" he asked, receiving a nod from the girl as a response. "Thought so. I had the same feeling when I first found this place a year ago. Beautiful isn't it?"

The blue eyed girl nodded. "It is beautiful, it's like a whole other world. How did you find this place?"

"Luck, I guess." Aetius then walked over towards the tree and sat down underneath the small wooden boards that were fastened between the tree and the nearby hedge, a small container was next to him. "Come on over, I think I have a spare book or two in here somewhere."

As soon as Blanc heard the word 'book' she quickly walked over to Aetius and sat down next to him, her back up against the large tree in the centre of the sanctuary, she was then handed the few books that the young boy had stored away. Her options were pretty limited however, although out of the five books she was handed one stood out from the rest, it was a book about the known history of CPU Memories – the stone consisting of Share Energy that was able to turn a person into a CPU, or a monster. The brown haired girl placed the four remaining books on the ground between her and Aetius, who was by now deep into his book about geography. Blanc giggled as she saw how happy he was, his expression all perky and cheerful.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Aetius asked Blanc after he noticed her giggling.

"Don't worry about it, was just seeing how happy you were, that's all." Before Blanc began to read her chosen book she asked Aetius a question that concerned her. "Hey, Aetius, do you mind if I come here sometimes?"

The boy looked at Blanc and smiled. "Sure thing, you can come here whenever you want. Just don't tell anybody else about this area."

"Thanks, Aetius." She then beamed a bright and happy smile, making the young boy blush. "Oh, by the way, since I'll be coming here often I'll be brining some more books, you hardly have any. Plus, if you're thinking of getting a proper shelter up and running you should get more of those wooden boards, there isn't enough for a real shelter."

"I'll keep that in mind," Aetius replied, giving Blanc one final smile before returning to his book. A gentle yet cool breeze blew past them once more, the branches of the tree above them wavered with the wind and leafs fell to the ground, littering the snowy grass with the leafs. Everything truly did feel at peace, and things were more than well between the two friends, who remained seated under the tree with their books and passed the time together.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally found some time to complete this chapter, took much longer than I anticipated, but I had other things to do that were of more importance, plus a few other issues. I always seem to have writer's block whenever I try to come up with peaceful, family friendly chapters, this one was no exception from that problem. I have been planning out the rest of this fanfic for a while and I have managed to plan a few chapters already, including some for the next arc whenever I get around to it. Anyway, don't expect too much action for the foreseeable future with this story, although I might try to include some sort of action. Regardless, thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions please inform me and have a good day.**


	3. Twin Sister

**Chapter 3: Twin Sister**

"Lets see… ah! There it is," Aetius mumbled to himself as he searched through his closet, picking out several interesting books, even a few long nails and a hammer were pulled out. The closet appeared mildly empty and devoid of life, only dust-covered old clothes, books and empty cardboard boxes with old tape around it could be seen, and there were not many of those. It was safe to say that the snake-eyed boy did not have a lot of possessions.

It was also safe to say that the boy's room was also lacking in objects. The white coloured walls were barren with cobwebs in the corners of the small room, a bed was tucked away in the corner that was furtherest away from the white door, an almost empty bookshelf was nestled away in another corner with a photo of a woman with ice blue hair and piercing yellow eyes on the top shelf, then lastly there was a desk up against the wall closest to the bed. The carpet was a very light shade of brown and it looked like it had not been cleaned for months. Such was the state of Aetius' room. Meanwhile, the young boy was cleaning through his closet and picking up any books that interested him and could possibly interest Blanc, ever since he learned that she was an avid reader the ice blue haired boy had grown excited, a bit too excited one could say.

The only books that Aetius had concerned geography, history and fantasy, though despite not knowing what types of books Blanc read Aetius was confident that his choices would make a great impact on her. His snake-eyed pupils widened as his mood became happier, his blue bag already half full due to the books, hammer and nails – the nails were in protective casings just in case Aetius happened to rummage through his bag. Regardless, the young, snake-eyed boy was overjoyed at the prospect of having to introduce Blanc to his books. As Aetius moved a cardboard box aside he came across two pieces of paper that were stabled together, he picked it up and took a close look at it, then he remembered what it was. "Whoa, I've found the novel I wrote, and lost, a year ago! I knew I had it somewhere around here," Aetius said to himself, amazed at what he recovered.

The young boy placed the two pieces of paper in his bag before zipping it up, he then slung it over his back, placed his arms through the straps and left his room after closing the door behind him. Aetius' house was not big, especially compared to every other house in the neighbourhood, but there were reason as to why it was small. Firstly, the house had once been owned by an old couple who passed away over a decade ago, therefore explaining why it was small to begin with. Secondly, Aetius' father had bought the place because it was cheep and good enough to live in. Thirdly, Aetius' father did not have a lot of money, but where it all went into was beyond the young boy's knowledge. Fortunately for Aetius' family the small house was big enough to house at least three people, and that was enough for them. The house contained a living room with an adjacent kitchen, a small backyard, a bathroom, a laundry room and three bedrooms – technically two bedrooms, the third bedroom was actually a storage room that was converted into a bedroom, that was the room Aetius was forced to live in.

As the young boy entered the hallway and made a beeline for the front door he was stopped by the voice of the one he dreaded most. "Hold up there, buddy. Where're you going?" the voice asked him, their tone indicating that they were not too happy to see the boy.

Aetius turned around and glanced sheepishly at the source of the voice, he scratched the back of his head nervously. "Er, what? S-Sorry if I disturbed you, I was just… g-going for a walk is all. Nothing to worry about, Erza," Aetius replied nervously, waving his hands in an attempt to calm the girl down.

The owner of the voice, a girl call Erza, stared in a menacing way at Aetius, it seemed that she did not truly believe him due to his nervousness. Erza was a young girl who was slightly taller than Aetius, she had short yet spiky ice blue hair and dark amber eyes, she was wearing a dark blue shirt with a mixed blue and white jacket, her shorts were also blue – clearly her favourite colour was blue. Erza appeared to be a tomboyish type of girl who always looked grumpy one way or another and was often mistaken to be a boy, in fact Aetius had never seen her smile in her entire life as far as he could remember. Erza also happened to be Aetius' twin sister. Aetius had never been close to his twin sister all his life, especially for the last few years. Despite being twins Erza was the eldest by a few minutes with Aetius coming after, neither of them knew their mother though, but according to their father Erza had her personality, at least a large part of it.

Right now, however, the elder twin was menacingly interrogating the younger twin with a glaring stare; it was her speciality to make others afraid of her, which was a rather surprising feat since her brother had snake eyes that made almost everyone afraid of him. Erza shook her head and crossed her arms, a snarling look formed on her face with the corner of her mouth showing that the young girl was grinding her teeth. "Where are you going?" she asked him again, her tone becoming more harsh.

Aetius sighed and twiddled his fingers, his eyes glanced away from his elder twin sister. _I guess I can tell her, what harm can it do anyway?_ Aetius reasoned with himself before answering. "W-Well, I'm going out to the park for a bit, that's all." the snake-eyed boy replied, he gave his sister a small smile.

Erza, meanwhile, glanced at the bag on her brother's back and noticed how full it appeared. "Is that so? Well, care to explain what you do there? You've been going over there for the last three weeks and have been coming back home being all happy. The hell are you doing over there? If you don't tell me then I'll just have to stick your head down the toilet."

The young boy had no idea why his sister was violent towards him, but whenever the ice blue haired girl was feeling 'unhappy' she would usually take it out against him if he ever got near her; it would normally end with a few blows on the head or a face in the dirt, sometimes it got a bit more extreme than that. It never ended in blood, only tears and shame. Aetius never hated his twin sister, but he never understood why she felt the need to keep using him as a means of defusing her anger, but the boy guessed he had something to do with it. Regardless, Aetius was a bit nervous telling Erza about Blanc, not because he did not want to tell her but it was because of what she could do to him, the young boy could not help but feel that if he told Erza about his friend then he would be subjected to her wrath. However, Aetius decided to risk it.

"I visit a f-friend there. Uh, w-we just read and talk a-about books, nothing much really," Aetius explained. "We don't do a lot, Sometimes we watch the lake, other times I run away from bullies, there's even a few occasions when she hits me on the head for being an idiot or something like that."

Erza's left eye twitched and her hands became tightly clenched. "'She'?! You have a girlfriend?! What the hell?! How long have you been keeping this a secret from me and dad, huh?! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

Aetius was shocked at the sudden change with his sister, she sounded more angry than usual; he had not expected this from her at all. Soon enough his face lit up red with embarrassment as he processed Erza's accusations through his mind. "G-G-G-Girlfriend?! Wh-Wh-Wha?! Th-That isn't true at all! We just h-hang out together and read books, that's all we do apart from running away from bullies," Aetius attempted to explain as best he could while stuttering, although this did little to calm his twin sister down, instead it only appear to aggravate her even more.

"That's just exactly what couples do! Are you that dense? Damn, you're just as dumb as you look," Erza grumbled furiously as she glanced away, her fists clenched with rage.

"But I'm not as dumb as I look because I look like a little kid with snake eyes, that doesn't make me look like a dumb idiot. In fact I don't think the word 'dumb' has a look," Aetius explained calmly, being too logical for his own good, a lesson he found out only too late.

Erza growled and smacked the young boy over the head, making him cry out in shock and pain as he fell to the ground, clutching the top of his head with both his hands as he leaned up against the wall, his gaze continuously looking between his elder twin sister and the floor. "Why did you have to go and hit me?" he asked in a whimpering tone.

"Because you just deserved it, you idiot. Besides, you having a friend just makes… it makes me… un...py…" Erza muttered, her words slowly becoming lost in an incoherent way, the words slowly became mixed together with other words as the elder twin continued to glance away from the young snake-eyed boy and stare at the nearby wall to her left. Eventually she stopped talking and muttering, leaving only an uneasy silence in its place; for some reason that was completely unknown to Aetius it seemed that Erza appeared to be sad, her finger were tightly clenched on the cuffs of her jacket and her teeth also appeared to be clenched together tightly as anger began to rise in her saddened expression. Eventually she spoke, but not in a kind way. "Stupid idiot, being alive and all, making me suffer this existence. Why do I have to suffer just because he has snake eyes?"

"Huh? Are you alright, Erza?" Aetius asked his older sister; despite being beaten up all the time by her the young boy did not feel any hostile feelings towards her, instead at that moment he was feeling sorry.

The snake-eyed boy's kindness was lost upon the elder twin, who looked back at him with cold, glaring eyes. She growled at him and began to storm off in the opposite direction, her fists clenched tightly and her pace swift. "If you want to go then go, just leave me alone. Go do whatever the hell you do with that 'friend' of yours," the ice blue haired girl said to Aetius as she stormed off furiously, no longer caring about the boy's presence.

As soon as Erza was out of sight Aetius got back onto his feet and rubbed the top of his head where his twin sister had hit him, the young boy appeared to be more than a little surprised with his sister's actions and choice of words, not to mention how sad she appeared to be as well as her incoherent mumbling. Overall it made the yellow snake-eyed boy more than confused. _Just what was all that about? Why was she angry with me for that time? It couldn't be just because I have a friend, right? Maybe it was,_ _but then why be angry in the first place? I'd ask, but I would probably get my head smashed in._ Aetius thought as he made his way outside, closing and locking the door behind him. As the young boy walked through the snow-clad streets he failed to see a set of eyes watching him from back in his house.

It did not take long for Aetius to reach the park where he would usually meet up with Blanc, mainly because he just could not wait to see his best, and only, friend again. As per usual, all the kids and adults that were in the park looked away from the young boy, disgusted that he was even wandering around the place in such a happy state; Aetius was not oblivious to it, yet he did his best to ignore it despite all of the glaring looks that he received. The young boy walked over to an empty bench covered in snow and sat down upon it after clearing the snow off it, his snake eyes darted from area to area as he looked around to see if Blanc was anywhere in sight, but there was not any sign of her as of yet. Undaunted, Aetius decided to not worry about and instead chose to read one of the many books he had brought along with him.

The book that Aetius chose to read was an adventure and fantasy novel about a group of people from all across the world from all different types of races, who band together to venture from one place filled with light and magic across the vast and wide world to another, more sinister and wicked place. It was merely the first novel in a trilogy, but the first few chapters already had Aetius enthralled with the tale that it told, not to mention that it was actually the sequel to a smaller, more childlike book that he had read a year ago. The young boy was heavily enjoying his book, reading it without caring who was around him, when suddenly someone roughly grabbed the novel out of his hands and held it above his head.

"H-Hey! Give that back to me!" Aetius exclaimed as he looked up at the person who grabbed the book. The ice blue haired boy quickly realised that it was the same boy who had tied Blanc upside down from a tree two weeks ago.

The grey haired book thief grinned malevolently and chuckled before running off down a snow-clad path. "If you want it, come and get it! Unless you're too scared, snake-eyes!"

"I-I'm not scared, I'm just not fit is all. Hey, w-w-wait up! Give my book back! Please! I'm not done reading it yet" Aetius responded as he stood up and ran after the grey haired bully, huffing and puffing as he tried to keep up with him. They ran throughout the park in all different directions, from across the dirt paths up the small snowy hills and in through the playground, much to the amusement of anyone who was watching. Aetius was definitely not fit, which was utterly proven when the grey haired book thief chose to wait for the young, snake-eyed boy to catch up several times.

The grey haired bully looked back behind him and grinned wickedly as they ran through a small patch of trees while a few other kids, most likely the bully's gang, laughed and jeered. "C'mon, snake-eyes, is that all you got? You're pathetic, go back to the wild where you belong."

"Stop being mean and give me my book back already!" Aetius yelled in response before tripping over his own feet, his cry was muffled by the snow that he landed in face first.

The grey haired kid laughed and stomped a foot onto the young boy's head, forcing snow to enter his mouth involuntarily. The ice haired boy struggled without success to get away, causing the bully to laugh even more. "Heh. How do you like eating snow, snake-eyes? Cold enough for you, you cold-blooded reptile? 'Cause there's more where that came from!"

Some of the other kids who were standing around laughed along with the grey haired boy, amused with how he was being treated, although one or two other kids did not seem to be too impressed with what was going on. Suddenly there came a highly annoyed growl, and the group of kids that surrounded the scene began to split apart as Blanc entered the field, a pissed off expression adorned her face. The blue eyed girl glanced at Aetius and snarled in anger as she saw what was going on, she then gazed at the grey haired kid and cracked her knuckles. "You there, ass-wipe, you're gonna pay for what you've done to Aetius."

The grey haired kid chuckled as he took his foot of Aetius and stood in front of Blanc. "Hey, didn't your dad ever tell you that swearing is bad? Oh wait, you don't have a dad. He's never coming back, he's dea—GAH!"

Blanc never waited for him to finish, instead she rushed forward and punched the kid in the gut. "SHUT UP! I'LL END YOU RIGHT NOW!" The brown haired girl tossed the bully into a tree and pummelled her fists into his gut and chest, never stopping and never wavering. The other kids, and Aetius, merely watched in horror as Blanc punched the grey haired kid across the face, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye.

As the bully fell to the ground Blanc grabbed him by the collar and raised her arm back for a final blow to his face, she did not seem to care if he was seriously injured or not from what everyone could see, the huge amount of rage in her eyes said it all. However, before Blanc could land another blow to the young kid she felt someone grab her right wrist firmly, the young girl looked back and was about to yell at whoever it was until she noticed it was Aetius. The snake-eyed boy stared at Blanc, silently pleading for her to stop what she was doing. Just seeing his worried snake-like eyes and concerned expression was enough for the young, book-loving girl to stop and let go of the grey haired bully. Swiftly afterwards, however, Aetius grabbed his stolen book and continued to hold onto Blanc's as they ran down the dirt track towards the lack with her in tow, much to her surprise. The remaining kids merely looked on with confused stares while the brown eyed bully grumbled as he wiped away the blood that dripped down his nose, silently swearing revenge.

After several minutes of constant running Aetius and Blanc arrived at the mildly frozen lake, both were exhausted from non-stop running as well as the small fight they were just in. When the young boy finally let go of Blanc's right wrist he collapsed onto the ground, his backpack slipped off his back and fell down next to him, he let out a light giggle after breathing and out heavily to regain his breath. "Okay then, that was something. You're really scary when you get angry, Blanc."

"I-I'm not _that_ scary, Aetius," Blanc responded as she sat down next to the young boy. "I was just… angry with how they were treating you. Why didn't you fight back?"

"Because I can't," Aetius replied, his tone becoming timid. He glanced away and hugged his legs, drawing his knees below his chin. "I-I'm sorry for being useless."

The brown haired girl sighed and shook her head before knocking the boy on the head gently with her left fist. "Hey, don't get so down about it, not everyone knows how to fight. Hey, if you want I can teach you how to fend for yourself, my mother taught me a few things about fighting so I'm sure she would have no problem with me teaching you. Hmm, maybe even mum could help a bit, that's if you want to that is."

Aetius stared at Blanc with wide eyes, surprised to hear her offer of helping with defending himself, not to mention the possibility of getting her mother to help with the deed. Eventually the young boy could not help but smile at Blanc. "S-Sure, thanks for the offer, Blanc."

"Heh, don't mention it. Now then, what have you got in that bag of yours? Though I heard a few things go 'clunk' in there," Blanc asked, her gaze set upon the bag that was next to the two of them. "Is there any book in there? There is, isn't there?"

Aetius nodded before reaching into his bag and pulled out a couple of novels, he handed them over to Blanc and could not help but chuckle as the young girl's eyes shot wide open, making it obvious that she was excited with the choice of books to read. "You can take them home if you want, I honestly don't mind. D-Do you have any good b-books for me to read?"

Blanc nodded. "I do, but they're back in my room at home. I'll fetch them tomorrow for you if you want." She then smiled brightly at him, making the ice haired boy blush, forcing him to glance away to hide his embarrassment.

After looking at the interesting, yet rather small, choice of books to read, Blanc and Aetius began to pack up and head over to their secret reading spot, that was until they heard something, or someone, rustling in the bushes nearby. Blanc stopped in her tracks and glared at the snow-clad bushes, clenching her fists tightly in a defensive position. "Come on out of there, we know you're hiding there!"

Soon afterwards a head with ice blue hair emerged from the bushes, it belonged to a young girl who appeared to be more than annoyed. It was Erza, much to Aetius' shock. "Erza? What are you doing here? I thought you were at home."

"Someone you know?" Blanc asked the snake-eyed boy.

Aetius nodded, although the sandy brown haired girl noticed how afraid he appeared. "Y-Y-Yeah. Th-That's my twin sister, Erza."

Blanc raised an eyebrow at the young boy as she hid behind her back, his head peering over her left shoulder. "Your twin sister? Well, you both have the same hair, so I guess you're siblings, but why doesn't she have snake eyes?"

Erza, however, did not seem to be too amused with being called Aetius' sister. "Are you seriously putting me in the same boat as this bimbo? He's… he's just a reptile! A snake on legs! He may look human, but he's just like one of those monster that roam the wilderness. How can you even be friends with someone lie that?"

"How can you be so harsh to someone that's so misunderstood? He isn't a monster, he's as human as you and me, but it's fair to say that you're the monster here, bitch. Get out of our faces, and stay away from me and Aetius, or else. Go." Blanc glared at Erza in a vicious stare, and she in turn glared back just as ferociously.

Eventually, however, the ice blue haired girl sighed and seemed to give up on glaring at Blanc, but she did have something to say before leaving. "I don't like you."

"The feeling's mutual," Blanc responded as Erza walked away, seemingly content with finding out who Aetius' friend was. However, as the ice blue haired girl began to walk away both Blanc and Aetius thought they heard Erza mumble 'Why does he have to have a friend? Idiot' as she walked away with menacing eyes glaring ahead of her.

After the snake-eyed boy's sister left, Blanc looked over at Aetius and noticed his overly worried expression. "You alright there? You look pretty scared."

Aetius shook his head and stepped away from the young girl, appearing to get some of his fragile confidence back. "I-I', fine, just worried about what'll happen when I get home." He then looked over at Blanc, a small smile appearing across his face. "Anyway, want to read a couple of books for a while? I think we need a break." Blanc nodded vigorously and together the two of them headed towards their secret spot, eager to read the novels that the young boy had brought with him.

* * *

 **A/N: I am so, so, so sorry for the long awaited update, I'm afraid I got caught up with some other projects after I had a severe case of Writer's Block. Still, I'm glad that I got back to this, most of my others stories are filled with action, drama, suspense, fighting and romance, while this so far is basically different in many ways, and that isn't a bad thing at all. I did decide to put this on hold, but after rereading the first two chapters I thought it was better to continue with it. Again, updates will come out whenever I can come up with something for the chapters to come. Regardless, leave a comment or suggestions if you so wish, thanks for reading and I'll see – read I guess – you all next time.**


	4. Visiting a Friend

**Chapter 4: Visiting a Friend**

"Hmm… so it's just over there, down that street, pass that corner, go pass the convenience store and up pass the Council Chambers," Aetius mumbled to himself as he walked down the snow-clad pathway, doing his best to avoid the gazes and odd stares from any passer-by that happened to be around him. The young boy, with his snake-like eyes, was looking down at a map of the town that he held in his hands, arrows pointing here and there were crudely drawn on the piece of paper, directing towards a house on the other side of the town – at least it looked like a house anyway, the icon was a little smudged with colour pencil markings.

The person who had given the map with the arrows drawn onto it had been none other than Blanc. According to the brown haired bookworm, the arrows that had been drawn onto the map – which she took without permission from the Information Centre – led to a location that she wanted him to visit, although when the ice blue haired boy asked about the location he was surprised, very surprised in fact, to hear that it was Blanc's house and that she wanted him to come over sometime during the week whenever he felt like it. This was something that Aetius had not been expecting, in fact it shook him. He was nervous and mildly frightened, no one had ever invited him over to their house before, not even his relatives when they happened to be around. When questioned as to why Blanc had given him an invitation to visit her house, the young boy was met with an odd stare before the book-loving girl informed Aetius that she had told her mother about him for the last few weeks, plus she just wanted to hang out like normal friends would do.

The young boy did his best to stay away from the gazes of passer-bys as best he could, afraid that they might see his snake-like eyes; although most people already knew what he looked like regardless of the snake eyes. The map that Aetius was rather well drawn out and written in a clear handwriting, which was a lot better than his own handwriting skills to say the least. After a short while of navigating his way via the hand drawn map, Aetius found himself by the convenience store, there he decided to by himself a bottle of fresh water from within the building. The ice blue haired boy did his best to ignore the stares from people who passed by while doing their shopping, even when he approached the counter to buy the water bottle. Aetius was used to the mixed gazes that were directed towards him, almost at least; the young boy had around a year to get used to it anyway, considering that he and his family only moved into town some time ago.

Once Aetius had left the convenience store and drank some water in the process, he continued on his merry way until he finally reached the Council Chambers. This was the place where the governors of the town along with the mayor, the Council Members as they were called, would reside and do whatever they needed or wanted to do within; the young boy did not have a mind for politics, mostly because of his young age. The ice blue haired boy stopped outside the Council Chambers and sat on a bench to regain his breath, there he heard the thundering shouts, yells and debating that came from inside the fairly mild sized building. It all sounded like mumble jumble to Aetius, so he quickly decided that it was not worth his time to even consider what they were debating about – as it turned out the Council Members were merely discussing whether or not to raise trade tariffs, an issue which never gained a verdict at all.

 _Since that was the Council Chambers, that means that Blanc's house should be down that street, which is over there. That means I'm getting closer._ Aetius thought to himself, a growing anticipation of joy was starting to swell within him, yet there was also a large feeling of anxiety growing as well. Nevertheless, the ice blue haired boy was glad to get out of his house and be outside, things were starting to get more than a little hectic as of late – most of it was caused by his twin sister, Erza, while bits and pieces of the growing tension had been raised by his father, who was not the great person to reason with.

After crossing the road the young man walked down the street in the direction of Blanc's home, at least that was what the map indicated anyway. The street that Aetius found himself on appeared a little different than the rest of the town, it looked like it was almost a different culture, of a sort anyway. He wondered if there was a different between the eastern part of town and the western half, there appeared to be a difference with some architecture at least and from the look of it there was also a small difference with the style of clothing. _Huh, it actually reminds me a little of Blanc, the clothing does anyway. Everything around here seems to formal and traditional compared to the area where I live. I like it here, it feels… kinda nice. Oh, I think I've reached Blanc's house._

Indeed he had. The young boy stood in front of a fairly sized house with two separate floors, an autumn red coloured roof, white brick walls, a wooden fence, a small garden, and what looked like a play area with a set of swings, a sandpit and what appeared to be a small combat training yard with practice dummies, wooden warhammers, wooden swords, wooden spears and even a large stick that could have been a staff; all the makeshift training weapons were worn with overuse. Was Blanc's family rich, or was it something else? Aetius did not know, but it did not seem too important. At any rate, the ice blue haired boy walked up to the gate, opened it, walked down the stone path until he arrived at the front door. The snake-eyed boy cautiously raised his right hand towards the door, undecided whether to knock now or just think about what he was going to do – his nerves were not exactly stable, hence his usual bouts of nervousness.

Eventually, after almost a minute of internal debate and arguing, Aetius knocked on the door as gently as he could. After a minute or two of waiting for someone to open the door and greet him, the young boy felt as if no one was going to answer his gentle knocking. That line of thought did not last long at all. Before Aetius even thought about heading back home he saw the door swing open and a lady stepped forward, staring at him with a stoic expression that he had seen before. The woman looked like Blanc, at least an older and more mature-looking Blanc anyway. The woman who stood before the ice blue haired boy was naturally taller than him, although she was not all that tall, maybe just below average at least. She had blue eyes, sandy brown hair that flowed down to her shoulders, fair skin, a stoic expression upon her face and a gaze that cut deep into his soul. She was wearing a long white dress with red lining, blue accents and detachable white sleeves that were a part of the dress itself, along with long white stockings and white shoes with blue and red lining. What Aetius found most curious was the ring upon one of her fingers; the ring had a gold band and a silver jewel in the centre, it looked like one of those wedding rings that the young boy had heard about yet never seen.

At any rate, it looked as if the woman standing in the doorway was a relative of Blanc's, it was most likely her mother. Before the ice blue haired boy could say or do anything, the woman at the doorway raised an eyebrow and gave the boy a stern look for a couple of seconds, soon afterwards a small smile grew upon her face as her expression lightened up. "So, you must be this 'Aetius' that I've heard about," she said, addressing the young man. Her tome of voice was different than Blanc's, while the young girl's voice was more quiet and soft it appeared that her mother's voice was more upbeat and full of emotions.

"Um, y-yes, that's me," Aetius replied in a highly concerned tone, not knowing whether or not the woman liked the look of him.

"Hey, ease up already, kiddo, I ain't gonna eat ya or whatever," the woman said in response to Aetius' concerned tone. As he tried to calm himself down, the ice blue haired boy came to realise that if the woman standing in front of him really was Blanc's mother then he could only have wondered what her father would have been like; it was clear to the snake-eyed boy that Blanc only took after her mother when it came to certain looks, and that was about it.

"Um, are you Blanc's mum?" Aetius asked, doing his best to keep his nerves at a minimum.

The woman nodded. "Yep, that I am. You can call me Bellona, I'm not into the whole formal thing that people are into these days, I'm more casual than the rest. Anyway, nice to meet ya, I've had to put up with Blanny talking about you constantly for weeks now, so it's about time I got to see the boy who has made her all happy."

"Happy? Um, wh-what are you talking about?" Aetius asked, confused as to what Bellona was talking about.

"Well, she's never had a friend before so that's a start, plus no one has ever been able to keep up with her bipolar personality issue, to do that you'd have to be pretty considerate and highly polite – traits that seem to be lacking in some people around here these days," the brown haired woman replied, crossing her arms across her rather small chest in the process. It appeared that Bellona was not too fond of some of the town's population for whatever reason, so Aetius decided it was best to not ask about it. However, there was something else that interested him.

"Bipolar? What's that supposed to mean?" Aetius asked in a curious tone. It was the first time he had heard the term before, so his curiosity was understandable.

"It basically means that my daughter as a bit of an emotional problem or something. She can be happy one minute and angry the next, or simply quiet and inattentive for a moment and then suddenly become something else entirely. You'll get used to it," Bellona explained as best she could, although scientific people would have commented on how she explained it in the first place – to which she would have simply beaten them up. "Anyway, Blanc sure did pick an odd person for a friend. I mean, are you even human?"

The ice blue haired boy shrugged his shoulders, apparently he did not seem to take Bellona's words in a bad way. "I don't know, but I feel like one anyway."

"All right then, if you feel like a human then I'll consider you a human. Don't worry, Blanc takes her kindness from me, I guess he took to it a bit to much though when it came to you, not that there isn't anything wrong with that." Bellona turned around and let Aetius walk into the house, then she closed the door behind them and shouted towards the stairs that were nearby down the hallway. "Hey, Blanc, your friend is here to see ya!"

Within an instant both Aetius and Bellona could hear the sounds of footsteps swiftly running across the wooden beams of the second floor, the sound echoing down the stairs and into the hallway. A few seconds later Blanc was halfway down the white and red stairs, barely panting for breath as she gazed at the young boy, a joyful smile appearing in her expression. "Aetius? That's good, I'm glad you came. Hey, mum, can we play in my room for a while, please?"

Bellona nodded, yet for some reason there was a cheeky grin that adorned her face. "Yeah, sure, go right ahead, I wasn't gonna stop ya or anything. Have fun you two." As soon as the two children were out of sight upstairs, Bellona sighed cheerfully and shook her head as she made her way towards her own room. "Ah, young love. It takes me back a whole lot of years when I met her father. Those were good times."

As far as Aetius could tell it appeared that the appearance of Blanc's home was unlike anything he had seen, but it seemed to be expected from such a traditional-looking area of town. The walls were white with red lining, the floors were made of varnished wooden beams as were the white and red painted columns that sprouted up from the floor and into the floor above. There were most likely some other bits and pieces that Aetius had mostly likely missed as Blanc led him towards her room, but he felt as if it was not too important to analyse and remember everything he saw. The two children arrived outside what the young boy could only think of as Blanc's room, this was furthered proved when the brown haired girl basically pointed out that it was indeed her room. Her room looked like the rest of the house that Aetius had just seen: white walls with red lining around the ceiling and ground, wooden beam floor, more than several bookshelves were next to a cupboard built into the wall and was filled with clothes, a small bed with white and red sheets occupied one of the corners of the room near the window, a desk with a comfy chair was in another corner while a small table with several cushions and a mat surrounding it was located in the centre of the room.

"This looks pretty comfy," the ice blue haired boy said as he stood near the table. It was then that he noticed the large wooden hammer that leaned up against the desk, which was a little concerning to think about.

Blanc nodded, glad to hear that her only friend liked the look of her room. "I do my best to keep it clan and everything, although sometimes I always wonder why I bother. But now you're here, so I have to keep my room as clean as possible if you are going to come over every now and then."

"Really? O-Okay then, I'm happy to know that I'm useful for something," the ice blue haired boy muttered, hinting what he had been through at home as well as his entire life as a whole. The young boy did not mean for Blanc to hear him, but she did hear him utter those words, but the brown haired girl wanted to show her around the room before she started to ask questions that sounded too personal.

The young girl began to show Aetius around her room, even though the young boy had already gotten a good look of it when he first entered the place, but the snake-eyed boy decided to not tell Blanc about it, she appeared to be having too much fun showing him around her own room, pointing every little detail out. The clearly excited even started to pull books down from her shelf and gave them to Aetius so he could take a look at them; some of them were even handwritten by her the previous year. The handwriting of the small novels she wrote utterly astounded the young boy, it was well written and easily readable, a far cry from what he had produced. In fact, Aetius had brought along the small 'novel' he had written a year or two ago with him so Blanc could read it; whether she liked it or not was something he had not considered to a great extent.

"See, this is a story about some fantasy place where the hero and the heroine adventure around the land, fighting off a fallen angel who was trying to conqueror the world. I got it from the local book store; it's a good book," Blanc informed the young boy with pure excitement, eagerly taking more and more books off the shelf. "And this one is more realistic, kind of. It's based on a story set in a fictional world history. The story is about a CPU who ruled a great nation, she was proud and mighty, but she fell in love with a human who was downtrodden by society due to his roguish personality, the other CPUs, the drama that they cause and some really deep stuff. After some time the two got married, but things fell apart when the roguish man died while protecting his goddess wife, which resulted in her personality taking a turn for the worse. The people rose in rebellion after the CPU destroyed her own nation in a fit of anger and defeated their fallen goddess. It's a sad story."

"Um… You just told me the entire plot of the story," Aetius pointed out, shattering Blanc's excited persona completely.

"W-W-Well, I um… I-I just got a bit excited is all. I mean, y-you're the first person besides my mum to see all my books," the young girl responded nervously, holding the book in her hands close to her face, her gaze falling away from Aetius towards the floor. "I… want to show you all I've got here, because I don't think I'll ever get to do something like this with anyone else."

The ice blue haired could not help but blush due to what Blanc was almost quietly saying to him, in fact it made him outright embarrassed. Aetius had heard of a term that described what he was seeing right at the moment, the young boy had heard the term during his time in the park when he saw a group of young boys looking at some girls around their age. Cute. Blanc was cute. Normally Aetius would see her as a stoic individual who would show little emotion and practically take no nonsense from anyone, not even the young, snake-eyed boy himself – he heard some guy call people like that 'kuuderes'. However, now he was seeing what seemed like another personality, a very adorable and cute one at that.

Without having to think much about it, Aetius reached forward and took hold of the book that Blanc was holding, the one that she classified as a 'sad story'. The young girl blushed as Aetius took the book away from her grasp, wondering why he would still want to read it despite the fact that she had practically ruined the plot of the story for him. Blanc soon got the answer to her unasked question. "Th-Thanks for letting me see all these books, and I don't mind if you spoil it, I'm probably going to enjoy it anyway. Besides, just seeing you all so happy makes me… well, it also makes me happy, I guess it makes me feel wanted," the ice blue haired boy said in an upbeat tone that the brown haired girl had never heard from him before. "Actually, you kinda look cute when you're all red in the face like that."

This time Blanc's entire face blushed bright red with embarrassment. She had fully let go of the book that was originally held in her hands, grabbed another one and held it over her face. The young girl could not believe that Aetius had just said that to her without a hint of embarrassment, at least not much of it anyway; his cheeks did have a hint of red in them after all. "Th-Th-Thank you, Aetius," Blanc muttered in an embarrassed and quiet tone.

The snake-eyed boy smiled brightly at the young girl. "No problem, Blanc. So, do you mind if I read it now?"

Once the brown haired girl had sufficiently recovered from her embarrassed daze, she nodded and grabbed another book from her bookshelf. "Mhm, sure thing. It's one of the reasons I wanted you to come here, so we could have another place to read together." She then sat up against her bed frame with a comfortable red and white cushion beneath her. "Well are you going to sit next to me and read that or what?"

"Oh, r-right. Okay then," Aetius stuttered as he walked up to the bed, grabbed a light blue coloured cushion and sat next to the brown haired girl. Once he felt comfortable enough, the snake-eyed boy opened the book he had taken from Blanc and began to read it from the beginning.

The title of the book was called 'A Tale of Sorrow', and the story lived up to the title, just as Blanc had excitedly explained beforehand. It seemed pretty interesting, especially the deep and personal back stories involving the main characters, Duron the Rogue and Blue Heart. Essentially, the plot of the story was mainly around Duron the Rogue, who ventured throughout the wild as a mix between an adventurer and a bandit. Duron had been abandoned as a child, what exactly happened to his parents was never explained, but he had taken care of himself for years in a variety of ways, not all of them being noble. One day Duron ventured into a dense forest to hunt the local monsters for credits when he happened upon Blue Heart, the CPU of a nation in the north. The goddess mistook Duron for a monster due to the way he dressed for warmth and began to fight him, but after realising that he was a human the CPU stopped her attacks and tried to apologise as best she could. The two got to know each other better after several monster hunts and what people called a 'date', what that was Aetius did not fully understand, but from what he read it seemed to create feelings towards the two main characters.

After Duron and Blue Heart began to state dating as boyfriend and girlfriend, which were new words to the young boy and had little concept to his knowledge, things started to heat up with the plot when many people openly objected to their relationship. It was during this part when Blanc decided to join Aetius with reading the book. The young boy looked over to his left and noticed the brown haired girl leaning close to him, her right shoulder brushing up gently against his left shoulder as she peered inquisitively at the current chapter he was one. "Um, B-Blanc, what are you doing?" the boy asked nervously. Despite knowing what she was doing he wanted conformation.

"Just seeing what part you were up to," Blanc replied as her gaze was directed towards the young boy's eyes. "Don't you want me to read with you? If that's what you want, then I can go back to my book, I haven't finished reading it yet anyway."

"Huh? I-I wasn't saying that at all, Blanc. You can read with m-me if you want to, I was just a bit surprised was all," Aetius responded as quickly as he could, not wanting to see his only friend get upset.

This had the desired affect. Blanc immediately perked up and became excited at the prospect of reading the same book as the ice blue haired boy was. "Really? Okay then, let's read together." She then proceeded to fully sit right next to Aetius with her shoulder rubbing against his, their faces close together, their hands practically touching one another as they held the book and turned the pages.

What made Aetius blush in response to this was the expression Blanc had on her face. There was hardly a smile, in fact it appeared almost expressionless aside from bright eyes and the curves of the corners of her lips. In a book the boy had read some time ago this expression reminded him of a 'kuudere' character that was described in the book, and it was definitely an interesting look. The young boy's cheeks were bright red and he was unable to fully concentrate on the story. _Wh-What's gotten into me? I-Is it because Blanc's a girl? Is it because she's my friend? Is it because we're doing stuff like this?_ _This is too weird!_

"Hmm? Is everything all right, Aetius?" Blanc asked, clearly knowing that there was something going on with him, the slight twitching of his nerves and the quivering of his lips were enough of a sign.

"Wh-Wh-What? I-I'm fine, I'm just a little n-nervous b-because I've never done something like th-this before," the ice blue haired boy explained with a clear stutter, his gaze falling away from the book and Blanc. "Anyway, I-I can still read with you, I want to. Want to continue with this?"

The brown haired smiled and nodded. "All right then, if you want to. Oh, the next chapter is the one with the next 'date' or whatever they like to call it. Then later on there's some serious stuff that happens with the other nations."

As soon as Blanc had stopped explaining what the future plot of the story was, the two of them began to continue reading the novel. The plot was just as the young girl had explained it, just about anyway. After reading through several more chapters where there were several more of these 'dates' as well as a savage confrontation between the other CPUs who were named Violet Heart and Grey Heart, who gained up and attempt to take away Blue Heart's shares by spreading rumours that were debased and full of lies. In later chapters the rumours started to take truth, especially when Blue Heart began to become imperialistic and oppressive, then came the public announcement of Duron and Blue Heart's relationship – apparently in the fictional world of Gamemarket is was taboo for a goddess and a lowly human to have a relationship together.

The novel was a long one, longer than Aetius had expected it to be, but he was enthralled by the contents, although there were many words and concepts that made no sense to both him and Blanc. Essentially the rest of the story told about the downfall of Blue Heart, her descent into depression, how Duron did his best to help her through the hard times and their eventual marriage. But just as Blanc had excitedly explained earlier on, things went downhill soon afterwards. Violet Heart and Grey Heart, who finally snapped, declared war on Blue Heart's nation and fought their way across the countryside, declaring that they would free the northern nation from a dictator. Duron the Rogue fell in battle and his body was never recovered. Blue Heart, who had been abandoned by her people, rose in revenge for the loss of her lover and practically brought her nation to ruin while using the power of hate, anger and all sorts of negative emotions to empower her, eventually slaying Violet Heart and Grey Heart. However, the people finally rebelled and ganged up on Blue Heart, destroying her corrupted Sharicite and stopping her madness in its track. Alone, depressed, insane and defeated, Blue Heart returned to where Duron was killed and ended her life.

Once Aetius and Blanc had reached the end of the story, the young boy looked over towards his friend to see tears in her eyes. She snuffled audibly and wiped her face with a sleeved arm, wiping the tears away with one stroke. It appeared that the sad ending to the novel where Blue Heart finally ended her life had made Blanc emotional in a sad way, causing Aetius to wonder whether she was all right or not. "Hey, Blanc, are you okay? You're kinda crying there," the ice blue haired boy asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The ending of that book always makes me a bit sad," the blue eyed girl responded with a small yet bittersweet smile. "I have other sad stories, but this one is the saddest in my collection. I've been trying to write a novel with something like this, it involves a goddess character I created called White Heart who rules a nation covered in ice, snow and autumn-red leaves and… well, that's all I have so far. I still need to come up with a plot."

"Can I… b-be a part of the story?" Aetius asked all of a sudden, shocking himself in the process. Before the snake-eyed boy could even attempt to refute himself for what he had said, Blanc burst out laughing. The young boy tilted his head with confusion. "Huh? D-Did I say something weird again?"

Blanc shook her head as soon as she managed to clam herself down. "No, not it isn't something like that. Well, it kind of is. I was just really surprised to hear you ask that you wanted to be featured in my story. So sure, I can make up a character based on you and put it into my novel. You'll tbe the first person to read it when it's finished, I promise."

"R-R-Really? Th-That's awesome! Thanks a lot, Blanc," Aetius thanked the young girl with pure excitement in his tone as well as his expression.

"Heheheheh~ You're pretty funny you know, Aetius," Blanc giggled at him, making the young boy blush brightly as his gaze swiftly fell away from the only person who understood him, which only made her giggle more as she began to rub a hand through Aetius' soft hair. _Heh, Aetius can be pretty cute without even trying._ _D-Does he see me like that?_ _Wh-Why am I even thinking about something like that? This isn't like me at all!_

The brown haired girl's internal debate was interrupted by Aetius, who moved her hand away from his soft, ice blue hair and set it beside her. The young boy chuckled and rubbed the back of his head as Blanc stared at him with a confused look as he began to rummage through his pockets for something. Soon enough, Aetius pulled out two pieces of paper that were folded up into a small object. "So, um… c-c-can you r-read this, please? It's a novel of a sort that I wrote a year ago. I know it isn't all that good, in fact it isn't much of a novel. But can you, um, just read it, p-please?"

"Sure thing, I can do it right now." Blanc was given Aetius' 'novel', unfolded it and began to read what the young boy had written down a year ago. It should not have taken too long for her to read it, but what was handwritten on the two pieces of paper seemed to stumble her mind to utter confusion. Eventually, after managing to finish reading the supposed piece of 'literature', Blanc gazed over at Aetius, who was still sitting next to her with a worried expression, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Seriously? The hell is this supposed to be? Why did you call it 'Shots Fiyerd'? Plus a whole lot of these words you wrote are just terrible."

Aetius did not even bother to give a proper reply, instead he simply shrugged and blushed once more. Blanc sighed and shook her head as she placed the boy's 'novel' onto the table. "Well, how about we do something different and stretch out our muscles for a while? We've got a big backyard with a whole bunch of stuff out there to play with."

The ice blue haired boy nodded in response to Blanc's question. Soon afterwards she stood up, took Aetius' hand in a firm grip and led him out of the room into the upstairs hallway. The snake-eyed boy twitched nervously with pure embarrassment as Blanc continued to hold his hand while leading him down the stairs towards the back door. "Hey, B-B-B-Blanc, wh-what are we going to do outside?"

"Remember a couple of weeks ago when I said I could help you try to become a bit stronger so you could stand up for yourself?" the young girl asked as a response to his question, to which Aetius nodded. "Well that's what this is going to be all about. I'm going to help you stand up for yourself by improving your strength and combat abilities. Our day together has only begun."

* * *

 **A/N: Whew, been a while since I last updated this story, been meaning to get back to it eventually and everything. I know I've stated this before, but a lot of the first arc chapters are going to be smaller compared to what I usually do in my other fanfics. Yeah, slice of life isn't something I'm great at, but I'm learning. So this, as you readers can already tell, is the first part of Blanc and Aetius' day together at everyone's favourite kuudere's house, and things are going to get painful soon enough. Poor Aetius, even in childhood it may seem that Blanc is going to be tough. Oh, as for Blanc's mother Bellona, she's named after a goddess of war. She's quite different from Blanc ain't she? One can only wonder what the father must have been like.  
**

 **Anyway, I've been having some problems with my right wrist so updates with any story I have will take a little longer than usual, so I apologise for any lateness that occurs. Regardless, thanks for reading and have a good day if possible.**


	5. Unsuccessful Training

**Chapter 5: Unsuccessful Training**

Blanc continued to hold Aetius' hand tightly as she led him down the stairs and into the living room, as they passed their way through they saw Blanc's mother, Bellona, sitting on the couch with a book in her hands, though it was difficult to see what the title of the book was. Nearby was the kitchen, where the brown haired girl took a quickly glance at before returning her expressionless gaze to Aetius, her hand still gripping his wrist. "I should have probably asked you this earlier when you first arrived, but are you hungry?" she asked the ice blue haired boy. "I don't mind making some early lunch if you are hungry."

"I-I'm fine, Blanc, really I am, I'm not all that hungry," Aetius responded along with a wave of his free hand, that was until his stomach growled impatiently, causing the boy to blush brightly while making the brown haired girl break out in a fit of giggles. Eventually the snake-eyed boy gave in and nodded. "O-Okay then, Blanc, but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Oh shut up and sit down already, I'll find something for us to eat, now stop whining already," Blanc groaned as she pointed towards the couch where her strange mother was sitting at. "You can have a chat with my mum if you want, but, um… just be careful around her, she isn't like me at all aside from looks, some looks anyway."

Aetius looked over at Bellona, who had glanced up from her book and gave the young boy a cheery wave; she seemed friendly enough. The ice blue haired boy nodded, rather meekly, and walked over to where Bellona was sitting. Blanc's mother patted a spot next to her and grinned at him as he sat down next to her. "Sooooo, how's your date with Blanny goin'?" she asked with a cheeky grin.

This, however, confused the young boy, who had never really understood the concept of dating, and he made that clear in his own way. "Dating? What does that mean, Miss Bellona?"

"Um, well, it basically means a boy and a girl – boy and boy or girl and girl, makes no difference to me really – are going out, you know, boyfriend and girlfriend, go out and do stuff together. Something along those lines," the brown haired woman attempted to explain as best she could; it had been a long time since she went out on a date, thus her knowledge on the matter was a little bit rusty. "So I'm gonna ask you it again. How's your date with Blanny going?"

"Th-Th-That's what a date means?! W-Well, i-i-it isn't a date like that at all!" Aetius exclaimed while waving his hands. All Bellona could do was grin in victory, obviously pleased with the small amount of teasing she had already accomplished in such a short space of time.

"Well look at it this way: think of this as a learning experience for future reference, after all, you might probably have an actual date with Blanny in the future," Bellona explained, then she gave the snake-eyed boy a cheeky wink and got back to reading her book while taking glances at the blushing boy. "Ah don't worry 'bout it, you'll find it all out for yourself in the future."

Aetius was not too sure how to take that comment, so instead he nodded and glanced away towards Blanc's direction to see what she was doing, only to see the young girl walking around the kitchen with a frying pan and some bacon. It looked like she was making a toasted sandwich with some cooked ingredients, at least that was what it smelled like to the young boy. Regardless to whatever was going on in there, it was obvious that the simple act of making something for Aetius to eat was going to take a lot longer. At least it gave the snake-eyed boy some more time to get to know Bellona a little bit better, although the more that Blanc's mother grinned as she glanced at Aetius the more he thought it was a bad idea to even be near her.

After waiting around for a few more minutes, Aetius decided to try and be nice to Bellona, who so far being extremely friendly if cheeky towards him. "So, um, what are you reading, Miss Bellona?" Aetius asked politely, pointing towards the book that Bellona was holding in her hands.

"Huh? Oh, this book? Well… uh…" Bellona mumbled until her words fell silent, leaving the dying sizzling of the frying pan as the only thing that could be heard alongside with the sounds of knife chopping on wood. The woman's cheeks blushed slightly red as she chuckled with some embarrassment. "Well… how old are you, Aetius?"

"How old am I? Um, I think I am around nine or ten years old right now," the boy answered, confused with where the conversation was heading towards.

"Around the same age as Blanc then. Good, very good," Bellona said, nodding her heard at the same time. "Well then, I'm not too sure if you've heard of this before, and I know that I have yet to show it to Blanc, but have you ever heard of hentai doujin before?"

"Hentai doujin? Doesn't that have something to do with chickens or something?" Aetius replied, obviously getting the question wrong by a long mile, as was heard in Bellona's sigh. The snake-eyed boy realised that he got it wrong and became even more confused with what hentai doujins were. "Um, if that wasn't right, th-then what are they?"

"Hmm? What's what?" Blanc asked as she returned to the living room, carrying a small white plate with a cheese, tomato and bacon toasted sandwich. Once she had given it to Aetius, who took it with some nervousness, the young girl looked back towards her mother with a questioning gaze. "What were you and Aetius talking about? What's what?"

Bellona raised an eyebrow and thought it over with herself before blabbering on with what she and Aetius had been talking about. A part of Bellona's was saying for her to fully tell and show what hentai was, after all, they would most likely find out in the future when their hormones started to kick in. Another part of Bellona's mind was telling her to not tell Blanc and Aetius about it, for they were young and their minds were still developing to some extent, although Bellona herself had encountered hentai doujins when she was a few years older than what the two children in front of her were. Still, the debate raged for a little bit longer, until sanity and logic prevailed for once.

"Um, how to put it… I think it's better to leave that topic for when the two of you become adults, that way it'll be taken a lot better than now," Bellona finally responded, feeling good about her decision.

But what Blanc asked next was something the older woman had not expected at all, and it set her mind racing with various thoughts. "So how do Aetius and me become adults then? Do the two of us have to do something with each other?" the young, brown haired girl asked innocently, unaware of the strange images and thoughts flowing through her mother's brain.

"Um, well, not really. Well, sort of, in a way. But the two of you are too young to know about it, so there. And that's final," Blanc's mother said in a firm voice, ending that conversation and giving both Blanc and Aetus something to think about for the next several years. "Now then, how 'bout you two go and play outside?"

Blanc had seemingly forgotten about that, so she quickly became excited with the prospect of playing around outside with the ice blue haired boy, especially with what she had planned for the rest of their day together. Suddenly her cheeks started to brighten up with a light blush of red. "All right then. Meet me outside once you have finished eating that, Aetius. Also… um, d-d-does it taste g-good?"

The strange, young boy blushed back as he nodded, unused to how cute Blanc was around him while blushing. "Y-Yeah, I like it. Th-Thanks a lot, Blanc."

The young girl giggled as a small yet approving smile appeared across her face. "That's good to hear. A-Anyway, I'll be outside waiting for you, so hurry up and eat that already." With that said and done the brown hared girl left the living room and left through the back door, closing it behind her.

With Blanc now waiting outside, most likely getting the place set up for whatever activity she was going to show Aetius, her mother Bellona was grinning again, half to herself and the other half to the young boy, who was still sitting next to her. As soon as Aetius was finished eating his meal and was ready to make way for the kitchen to deliver the plate there, he was stopped by Bellona, who was being a lot more serious than before. "Listen, Aetius, and listen good. Blanc is a bit… special, in her own way. Blanc has a hard time with people and prefers to be alone with her books, yet she also just wants to make friends with all the other kids so she doesn't feel lonely, which she usually is. I guess it must be the same for you, judging from how you act."

"Wh-What are you trying to tell me, Miss Bellona?" the snake-eyed boy asked, his curiosity piqued. Aetius had guessed that Blanc must be lonely, especially if she picked out himself as a friend. There had to be more to it than that, and judging from what Bellona was saying there was something more to it.

"Well it has a lot to do with how now. You see, Blanc never really had a lot of friends to begin with, in fact any friendships Blanc formed never lasted long because of her… unique personality. You, however, you've lasted a lot longer than some other of her previous friends. Plus I think she sees something special in you, she probably sees a part of herself in you I suppose," Bellona explained to Aetius as best she could, telling the young boy information about Blanc's lonely past and how she saw something interesting in him. "Well, aside from seeing something interesting in you Blanny might have also been interested in what you are; after all, it isn't every day that you meet a boy that has snake eyes."

"So I'm just her friend because she's curious about why I'm like a snake? Is that all I am to her? Is it?!" Aetius asked in a less than happy tone of voice, making it clear that simply being an item of curiosity was not something he was taking a liking to. Suddenly he glanced away out of shame for raising his voice, for it was something that he had not done before, at least not in front of anyone anyway. All the frustration, despair, rage and other emotions the young boy had kept hidden within himself, which had been caused by almost ten years of constant harassment, had just started to come pouring out without control, until he finally managed to get it under control. "I-I-I'm s-sorry about th-that, Miss Bellona! I-I didn't mean to get all angry l-like that."

Blanc's mother did not seemed to be all that annoyed with it, in fact she appeared to be rather interested with the sudden outburst. "Feeling a little bit frustrated, Aetius ? Meh, don't take it too personally, okay? Blanc has her reasons as to why she befriended you, so you should be lucky to have a friend like her, it isn't every day that a young, pretty girl with a unique personality comes along looking for friends. Got it?"

Aetius nodded, although he was still feeling a little uneasy. "Uh huh, o-okay then, if you insist, Miss Bellona."

"Of course I insist, it's the truth. Now then, you go out there and play with Blanc while I take care of your plate. Oh, and look out for Blanc, not only today but also for the future. Can you do that for me? I hope so. Now go out there and play already, kiddo." Bellona snatched the plate that Aetisu was holding and pushed him to his feet, nudging him playfully towards the back door where Blanc was waiting for him.

The snake-eyed boy thought over the brown haired woman's words over and over again as he opened the door and entered the backyard, the entire conversation kept plaguing his mind as he thought about Blanc. Speaking of Blanc, the young girl was standing in the middle of a mildly snow-clad grassy area of the backyard, surrounded by what looked like practice dummies and wooden weapons. To the right of the training field was a small playground that looked as if it had barely been used much, then there was a sandpit with a sandcastle right in the middle of it, then nearby in the left corner of the back fence was a small shed which was undoubtedly filled with gardening tools. Blanc appeared to be impatient and glared at Aetius with a look of disappointment in her eyes as he walked closer to her.

"What took you so damn long?" Blanc demanded in a grumbling tone as she grabbed hold of a large wooden warhammer.

"I-I-I was just t-talking with your mother, she wanted me to l-look out for you," Aetius responded nervously, keeping a safe distance away from Blanc and her wooden warhammer in case she got a little angry with him for whatever reason she could think of.

"Look out for me? What for? I can handle anything. It's you that needs to be looked after, you're a complete mess around people, even around me sometimes," Blanc responded, her temper disappearing as her expression lightened up upon saying the young boy's name. It looked as if the blue eyed girl's statement had hit home with Aetius, who appeared to be more depressed than usual, at least to Blanc anyway. Upon seeing this, the young girl felt a pained sting of regret before she walked over towards him, eager to make the ice blue haired boy feel a little bit better. "S-Sorry about that, Aetius, I didn't mena for oyu to get upset."

"I-I know, it's just… I think you're r-r-right," the boy replied, flinching a bit when Blanc began to gently pat him on the head and ruffle his hair about – his hair always got ruffled around by the young girl, who seemed to like it a lot for some reason. After a couple of seconds of silence, the boy spoke up once more in his usual nervous tone. "S-So then, what are we going to b-be doing?"

"Training" was Blanc's response as she strolled on over towards a rack full of various different types of wooden weapons, ranging from spears to swords to axes, there was even a wooden staff leaning up against it. "Back in my room I said that I was going to help you become stronger so you would be able to stand up for yourself, so that's what I'm going to do."

"B-By giving me weapons so I can fight those dummies?" the ice blue haired boy asked as he examined the wooden weapons with some curiosity.

"Sort of. I'll be fighting you first," Blanc said without a whole lot of emotion while picking through some of the wooden weapons, wondering which one would suit the young boy. After looking about for a minute she turned around to face Aetius, only to see him clutching onto the weapon rack with only a portion of his face viewable, for the rest of it was, like nearly all of his body and limbs, were hiding behind it. Blanc tilted her head with a surprise look in response to this act. "What are you doing, Aetius?"

"Wh-Why do I have to f-fight you?" the boy responded quite a lot of concern.

"Because how else am I supposed to teach you to stand up for yourself? You have to have a moving target," Blanc explained as she picked up a wooden waraxe, looked at it for a couple of seconds before shaking her head and placing it back. She looked back at Aetius and, upon noticing the terror filled expression, sighed and patted his head. "Hey, don't worry yourself over it, I'm going to be easy on you with this training regime."

"A-Are you telling the truth?" the young boy asked nervously while still gripping onto the rack.

"No, not really," was the response he received back. Blanc now seemed a little bit more impatient as she watched Aetius stumble about while being forced to look for a weapon to use in their training match, so in the end the young girl grumbled as she grabbed hold of the wooden staff and forced it into Aetius' hands – clearly Blanc had little patience at all. "Here. Now get ready out on the field."

"O-O-Okay then, B-Blanc, just calm down," the snake-eyed boy said as he held onto the staff tightly and followed Blanc onto the small, snow-clad field of the backyard. For some reason or another, for Aetius could not explain it fully to himself at all, the young boy felt a little bit more at ease with every passing second while holding the staff, it was as if he had been giving his only true weapon.

The young girl stood right in the centre of the field, waiting for Aetius to face her. Once the young boy stood near Blanc, still feeling and looking a bit nervous, the sandy brown haired girl stood in an aggressive position with her wooden warhammer in both hands, as if she was going to launch a strike at Aetius. And indeed she was. "I'm going to attack, so defend yourself as best you can," Blanc informed the young boy, giving him a very short amount of time to ready himself.

"B-B-But I d-don't know how to fight," Aetius tried to explain while gripping the staff close to him. His gaze fearfully directed at Blanc.

"There's always a first for everything, Aetius. Just try to defend yourself when I attack, see if you can come up with anything by yourself first," the young girl responded, waiting for a moment to strike. After a minute of waiting about, she struck. The young girl leapt forward and sung her wooden warhammer sideways at Aetius who ducked and wrapped his arms over his head after dropping the staff. It was not what Blanc had expected. "Ugh. Maybe this type of training isn't going to work. It worked for me though."

"Th-That's because you aren't me, Blanc, I just c-can't handle dangerous things being thrown my way – I get enough of that from everybody else," the ice blue haired by responded as he glanced upwards at Blanc.

The young girl sighed depressingly, as if she had just worked out why Aetius was always so jumpy when anything was coming his way, whether dangerous or not. It sounded as if the young, misunderstood boy had not only been abused with words but with physical force as well. This only made Blanc's pity and sadness for Aetius all the more larger. "Well, how about we just skip all that and simply smash up the practice dummies? Sound good to you, Aetius?"

The boy nodded, glad that he was not fighting against Blanc for now on, until she decided that it was better for him to fight her in the future. The young girl led him to one of the practice dummies, fixed it up a bit and then stood back to face Aetius once more. "Just take a few shots at it with your staff for a while, try to come up with some sort of fighting style to use when you fight me a bit later; yes, we are going to be duelling again some time later. Try to take out all of your anger and frustration out onto it if it makes you feel better, that's what I do whenever I feel pretty angry with anything or anyone."

"E-Even when I make you a little b-bit angry?" the ice blue haired boy asked hesitantly, not knowing if he truly wanted to know the answer to it.

Much to his surprise, Blanc giggled in amusement. "Well, while you do happen to annoy me every now and then with your… quirks, I don't take it out on the dummies, in fact you abrely make me all that angry at all." She then proceeded to smile sweetly at him while affectionately rubbing her hand through his soft, ice blue hair. "I can never get angry with you, Aetius, you're unable to do anything like that anyway."

"Oooooo, look who's getting' all lovey-dovey with each other. Ahhh, young love. Hey! You two goin' to start confessing your feelings yet already? I'm waiting for that to happen," a familiar voice called out in a highly cheeky tone. It was Bellona, and she was in a rather good mood just from seeing how Aetius and blanc were getting along. From an outside prospective it would indeed seem as if the two were being all lovey-dovey and were trying to confess their feelings in some form or another while showing their love. But for Aetius and Blanc the situation was completely and utterly different.

"Wh-Wh-What?! M-M-Mum! I-It isn't like that at all!" Blanc exclaimed while her cheeks blushed bright red with embarrassment.

"Yeah, yeah, and I suppose you'll be telling me that for the next five to six years as well knowing you," Bellona said, guessing what might happen in the future – whether it happened or not was up to them, and it was obvious that neither Blanc or Aetius had even considered it at all, but Bellona was always an optimistic person who liked to dream up scenarios. After witnessing the two children blush madly and glance around nervously, unsure as to how they could respond back, Bellona grunted as she stretched out, cracking her neck and shoulders before sighing with relief. "Well, I better leave you two to it, have fun and all that stuff."

Once Blanc's mother had disappeared back into the house, the young girl sighed in annoyance due to her mother's interference and decided to get back to training the young boy with his fighting technique, and confidence via through the training. It was tougher than she thought, considering that Aetius had never fought anyone or anything in his life, so the prospects of the boy becoming a better person by training how to fight did not seem to be a great prospect at that moment. Nonetheless, Blanc stayed at Aetius' side, forcing herself to direct him how to fight, how to defend himself and how to get out of the way from incoming attacks – all of which proved to be much, much more harder than she originally realised. Aetius dropped the staff several times, he fell over his own feet and he tried to run away from Blanc trying to get him to block her attack. It was a painful endeavour that took hours to try and accomplish, but to no avail, at least from one point of view anyway.

"Sheesh, you're more terrible at it than I thought," Blanc grumbled as the time began to move into the evening. "Well, at least you have me around. I'll make you into a more confident and stronger person, I swear it."

"Y-You don't have to if you really don't feel like it. Besides, I was useless today, I couldn't properly do what you had planned. I'm s-sorry, B-Blanc," Aetius apologised while his right wrist grabbed on tightly to his left arm, his expression was that of a visual depression, and it made the young girl sad to even see it.

"Well look on the bright side, you're learning. That's always a good thing, because no one ever gets it right the first time, not even me. So chin up and be proud of what you have accomplished today," the blue eyed girl said to Aetius, hoping that her words would at least cheer him up a bit, and it seemed to work.

"I-If you insist," the snake-eyed boy responded as both he and Blanc entered the house again, closing the door behind them.

"Ah come on, you did pretty well out there, kiddo," Bellona called out from the living room where she was reading what looked like a school pamphlet with a list in it. It looked as if she was ticking off the list as she read through it. Upon further inspection, Aetius realised that it was indeed a school pamphlet, a local one at that. The boy had heard of the school before from some of the local children who passed by, but he had never seen it before, or knew where it was located for that matter. Upon noticing his staring, Bellona raised an eyebrow and asked him an important question. "Say, you're looking a bit confuzzled there. You don't really know this school at all, do you?"

The ice blue haired boy shook his head. "N-No, not at all. I don't go to school, my dad teaches me and my sister at home."

"Is that so, huh? How long have you been living in this town?" Bellona asked, her curiosity and motherly instincts starting to rise.

"Um, I think a while now, maybe several months at best, at least four I reckon if I remember correctly. We moved here from some village up in the north, in the really cold region up there," Aetius responded after having to think it over for a short moment; his memory was not the best and was definitely not top-notch at all, in fact he had a tendency to forget important things.

Blanc's mother sighed and shook her head, displeased with what the young boy had said to her. "Well then, sounds like I gotta speak to your dad and get this cleared up; can't have you missing out of some education stuff can I? Alrighty then, we'll deal with that another day, but you better get back home now, it's starting to get late."

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah, you're right," Aetius stuttered as he realised the time. He then quickly made for the door with Blanc and Bellona behind him, both wishing to see him off. Upon stepping outside with his backpack now retrieved – thanks to Bellona – the young boy gave the two of them a farewell wave as a small and satisfied smile grew upon his face. "See you l-latter, Blanc and Miss Bellona."

"See ya latter, kiddo," Bellona responded, giving him a wide grin.

The young girl merely waved for a short moment before speaking. "Good bye, Aetius. See you tomorrow in the park. It… it was r-really f-fun having you here today." With that said and done, Aetius was gone, returning home to put up with whatever his estranged family had in store for him.

* * *

 **A/N: Been a while since I updated this, thought it would be a good idea to get this moving now that I've just gotten back into writing Blanc related stuff again – can't have enough Blanc around here I say, she needs a bit more loving, as long as it's done right in my opinion. So, how was Bellona for you lot? Interesting enough? Cheeky? Naughty? There's a big difference between her and Blanc, especially concerning all that reading material she has; just imagine what her teenage years were like. Anyway, if you have suggestions then please do inform me of them, anything is welcome. Have a good day if you can, readers.**


	6. Books and Secret Sadists

**Chapter 6: Books and Secret Sadists**

Aetius was sitting upon a cold log with a book in his hands, his legs were moving about while he hummed happily to himself, the young boy's eyes were glued onto the page he was reading at that moment in time. The book was one of Blanc's and she had given it to him the day after they had played together at her house, the brown haired girl informed Aetius that he had only a couple of weeks to read the book before handing it back to her, at least roughly two weeks at best, to which he agreed and promptly got to reading it. Overall the snake-eyed boy found the novel to be rather interesting, although there were some parts to it that made him confused.

For a start there was the whole romance part of the novel, which was part of the main plot. Aetius did not know much about it, aside from the whole boyfriend and girlfriend thing, but aside from that we was rather clueless as to why people would sacrifice everything for love; he barely had a concept of that as well. Another, yet less important confusion, was how short the book was. It was not completely short, but it was shorter than most of the other novels he had read in the past. It had at least around one hundred and eighty-three pages, not including the title, the index and the few pages at the end that had nothing on them. Then there was the fact that the novel had no proper book cover design to it, not only that but the name of the author was also missing, giving no clue as to who wrote it in the fist place.

Regardless of that, Aetius was enjoying it despite the occasional hiccup with the flow of the story, that and a few of the concepts of it, but it was something that he did like. If the ice blue haired boy was a novel critic then we would have given it a six and a half out of ten, though since he was a child he decided it to be a seven out of ten. If the young boy was a lot better at critiquing works of literature, and just about everything as well for that matter, he would have noticed that the novel ad in fact been written by an amateur author who was just starting to delve into the world of writing books. However, it was highly doubtful that the young boy wanted to be a professional critique person as a sort of occupation, if there was such a job.

 _Seven out of ten. Yeah, I think that would be a good score for this. I wonder where Blanc got this book. Did she get this from a bookshop? Maybe a friend gave it to her? Wait, she said I was her only friend. Better scratch that one then._ Aetius thought over to himself as he took a short break from reading the words on the page, his interest in the mysterious author and where the young girl had found such a novel perplexed him now more than before. However, it was not going to stop him from reading the book. After all, Blanc had yet to arrive in their secret playing area.

Normally the snake-eyed boy would wait for Blanc near the park or by the cold lake, but this time she was running late, and a sense of worrying about about her was starting to dawn upon the young boy. He looked up from his book and gazed around him, yet there was no other sign of life besides him and the occasional chirpy bird that flew around the place and nested in the trees surrounding the cold lake. After a couple of more seconds of frantic glancing, Aetius sighed. "Where is Blanc? She's never late, well, not usually anyway. But she's never this late. What's happened to her? Is she hanging upside down from a tree again thanks to those bullies? Is she sick? Or maybe… maybe she's getting bored of being with me? No, no that can't be it," Aetius mumbled to himself, his young mind wandering all over the place for reasons.

Worrying about people, himself, the matters of the world or just about anything was something that Aetius was very, very good at doing; sometimes he even worried about those who would bully him, all because the ice blue haired boy thought that he was just a bother to them. Aetius was not the most usual of people around, eyes included, but he was the most caring by far, and it made some residents rather confused or annoyed at times, or both if the situation warranted it.

After reading some more of the book, which got to a really interesting part concerning the heroine's journey to find her lost love in a desolate land, Aetius began to grow ever so more concerned for Blanc's whereabouts, so much so in fact that he began to glance around him in a much more frenzied state than before. "Um, B-B-B-Blanc? Hello? Y-You there?" the boy called out as he rose from the log, yet to no avail. "Urgh. Where are you? D-Do I really have to go and look for her? I don't know if Blanc would like that, especially if she's actually okay. M-M-Might as well check."

With that finally decided, the snake-eyed boy firmly grasped his book, once he ad placed a bookmarker in it, and walked up the dirt path towards the park. The park was the first place worth checking; usually Blanc would come down from there towards the lake and straight on to their secret spot, so there was a chance for Aetius to find the young girl coming from up that way. However, once the ice blue haired boy had reached the confines of the park itself, he was quickly disappointed in the lack of a result, instead what he received were the mixed stares from adults and their children, even an old couple found the boy's presence to be less than admired.

 _I-I-I better leave before I cause a problem again, d-don't want those bullies to hang me upside down and say that I'm a living swing again, or try to use me for something else. Especially when Blanc isn't here, she usually beats them up if they try to get to me._ The boy swiftly thought to himself before striding in a quick walk out of the park and onto the street, where, unfortunately for him, there were a lot more people. Fortunately for Aetius, and he knew this well enough, it was less likely for someone to physically bully him on the street, which was a source for relief. However, that did little to stop the verbal abuses that were spoken directly at him, from behind his back to face-to-face, which was still rather hurtful for Aetius. Nevertheless, his concern for why Blanc was late bypassed his usual instinct to keep a low profile.

Aetius walked past a group of kids, all of them were around his age and were talking amongst themselves, what they were discussing was unknown to the young boy though. One look form them caused the snake-eyed boy to make his quick walk a lot more swifter. This led him to the town centre, where he saw the politicians of the town walking in the general direction of the Council Chambers. While the young boy attempted to go around them, he caught the eye of one of the politicians, a wide, plump – or rather fat – man with black glasses upon his face, a black and grey business suit with a white shirt underneath and black pants, along with black boots. He paused his walk and glanced over at the young boy while adjusting his glasses, a curios expression appearing across his face as he patted down his grey hair.

"So that's the snake-eyed boy that my grandson has been talking about for the last month or two. Interesting. He doesn't look as dangerous as my grandson had suggested he was, but those eyes… I don't like them, not one bit," the man mumbled to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as his gaze continued to be directed at the young boy. "I doubt he would get far in life looking like that, not to mention how timid and frightened he appears to be from over here. Pathetic really. However, there could still be a use for him in the future, perhaps. Then there is his father… Hmmm, later maybe, maybe, when I have some political power around here. Maybe when I become mayor of this town, or perhaps even reform it so I can become Prime Minister. We shall see."

As the overweight politician mumbled these thoughts of political power and the father of Aetius, the young boy did not notice him, not that he wanted to get his attention anyway. Instead, the ice blue haired boy was making his way towards the bookshop, knowing that it was another one of Blanc's places to go to when she was feeling a bit down, or nervous for that matter. It would normally take a few minutes at best to reach there from the Council Chambers, though with the hurried walk that Aetius was doing he would reach his chosen destination within a minute. And reach the bookshop he did. There was not a lot of people wandering it, which was fortunate for the young boy, although that was only for the outside, and Blanc was nowhere to be seen.

 _Better head on in and try to find Blanc._ Aetisu thought to himself before heading on inside, much to his discomfort. It was easy for the young boy to head on inside if he had company, but it was much harder for him to go in as a result if Blanc was not around. While searching through the bookshop Aetius thought over how depended on the young girl he was. _Huh. I'm really depended on her, aren't I? W-Well, th-that isn't a bad thing, right? Maybe. I-I-I don't know!_

Unfortunately for Aetius, Blanc was nowhere to be seen within the confines of the bookshop, in fact there were not a lot of people wandering about or reading books, a mixed source of relief for the young boy. He turned around and was prepared to leave when he stopped and looked over at the cashier, who was sitting behind the reception desk. From what Aetius could see she had silver hair that was tied up in a bun, dark green eyes and a long brown jacket with a white and black traditional dress underneath; she was reading a book. She paid the snake-eyed no attention until he had actually reached the counter and rang the bell, though the young boy quickly wished that he had not even approached the cashier. The silver haired woman looked down at Aetius, appearing to be more annoyed about the fact that someone had disturbed her from the book in her hands.

"What is it? I'm busy. If you aren't buying then what do you want? Complaints? Well I'm a complaint on legs, try living like that for a while and see how you go," the silver haired woman grumbled while putting her book down on the counter.

"Um… H-H-Have you seen a g-girl around here with short brown hair, blue eyes, a doll-like face – you know, like an expression w-without any emotion in it?" Aetius asked nervously, his finger fidgeting about as he spoke to the grumpy lady before him.

"Uh… a girl with brown hair, blue eyes, a doll-like expression… Yeah. Yeah I did see someone like that not too long ago. She left a few minutes ago I think, said she forgot something back at her house and had to get it for a friend of hers. I'm guessing you must be that friend of hers," the cashier explained with barely any emotion to be heard, aside from the occasional boredom that emanated off of her. Aetius was just silently glad that it was not contagious.

"Well, th-thanks for helping. I-I-I'm off now. G-Goodbye," the snake-eyed boy said in a stuttered response before making a bit of a hurried exit out of the bookshop.

The cashier watched as the young boy left the store, mildly confused with just who he was and what he wanted with the girl, although after a couple of seconds the curiosity that she had quickly disappeared. The cashier then shrugged and got back on with her book, her memory swiftly forgetting most of what had happened beforehand. _Huh. What happened just then? Did someone come in and order some book again?_ _Guess it doesn't matter then. Time to get back on with reading this._ The silver haired woman thought to herself before getting back to her book.

Meanwhile, Aetius swiftly walked out of the shop and back onto the street, where he then ran off in the direction of Blanc's house, believing that she would be there due to the silver haired cashier's words. However, upon turning a corner the young boy smacked head first into a person walking around it in his opposite direction. Aetius cried out in shock and fell back onto the ground, wondering who he had bumped into. To his surprise it was a rather peculiar woman, one that made his spine shiver in fright and his nerves have a panic attack. The woman in question had dark purple hair, blood red eyes, fair skin and a grim expression. She was wearing a violet business suit with a black collared shirt with dark purple lining underneath and a black dress reaching to her knees, which matched her boots. The strange woman was not someone that Aetius recognised, in fact she appeared to be an outsider, a foreigner of sorts.

However, she was definitely not a polite woman, as was pointed out when her words pierced through the young boy's already fragile self-esteem. "Oi, watch where you are going, kid! Actually, what the hell are you? Some sort of humanoid monster or something with serpent-like tendencies? Ew. What are you even doing up here in the cold north? Trying to freeze to death?"

"N-N-No, not r-really, I-I've been living here for quite a while now," Aetius tried to explain as he beginning to get back onto his feet, all while trying not to suffer from an immense nervous breakdown or start crying. "Also I'm n-not a-"

"It speaks? Huh. Look, just get out of my way, you snake-eyed monster, I'm busy, I'm lost and my daughter has gone walkabouts without my supervision again." And with that she was off, making it obvious that she was glad to be away from Aetius.

All the commotion between the two of them had attracted a small group of onlookers, who were both surprised to see a foreigner walking about and amused to see the ice-blue haired, snake-eyed boy getting into trouble again. Aetius looked around him to see what was going on, only to see a small crowd of people either chuckling with amusement, staring coldly at him or simply ignoring him altogether. It was just too much for him. Suddenly the young boy had a nervous break down, which was made obvious due to his limbs shaking about without control, his words becoming a mere stutter and he just appeared to be frozen on the spot. However this was only temporary, for the young boy was able to mentally gather some of his wit and energy in order to make a run for it back towards the park, not caring who was in his way or not. To this the onlookers merely shrugged their shoulders and got back to whatever they were previously doing beforehand.

* * *

As the onlookers conversed with each other about what had happened, Aetius was still running, hoping to get away from the main parts of the town and escape to the secluded areas of the park, there he would be able to sufficiently calm down before deciding what to do next in regard to Blanc and her apparent trip home to collect something that she had forgotten. After some time of running, the young boy reached a part of the forest that was connected to the park, in fact it was near the same place where the bullies had Blanc upside down from a rope. There was no sign of life though, for not even his heat-vision senses could pick up any life, nor could any human life be heard at all. Instead there was only a slight gust of wind, the rustling of the leafs, the swaying of the trees, and the chirping of the birds. It was a good place for the young boy to stop running and calm down, and that was what he did. Aetius finally stopped running and collapsed onto his knees, dropping the book onto the ground while breathing in and out heavily for air.

"Hah… hah… Th-That was just… awful. E-Even foreigners hate me. Everybody hates me. They all do," Aetius whimpered to himself as tears began to swell around the corners of his eyes, his emotions starting to surge forth like a tidal wave against a weak barrier. Eventually he could not hold it back. Tears rand down his face and dropped onto the ground as he grabbed the grass tightly while letting out a whimpered cry. "I… I can't take tall this bullying any more, I just can't!"

The young boy just could not help but cry, his tears staining his cheeks and the ground. All of the frustration, fear and other emotions that he felt most of the time came pouring out like water from a bottle, and he was unable to keep it closed any further. After a couple of minutes of non-stop crying, Aetius was interrupted from his moment of pity thanks to the voice of a young girl, only it was not Blanc. "Hello? Who's there? Is someone crying?" the young girl asked, from the sound of it the voice was somewhat away in the distance, just down the path towards the lake.

Aetius looked up towards the location of the voice, unsure as to what to do next. It was obvious that whoever heard him weep was nearby, and they sounded friendly as well, if a bit sleepy, but there were people in the town who seemed friendly on the outside as well in their tone, but not with the words they chose to speak. _Why would this be any different? Only Blanc, her mother and sometimes my dad are the only ones who are nice to me. Well, dad is sometimes nice, but he can be a bit mean, especially when he comes back late and drinks that weird, smelly drink._ The young boy though as he continued to look in the direction of the voice while wiping the tears away from his face.

The young girl spoke out again when she failed to get an answer, although this time she sounded a bit closer than before. "Hellooo? You out here somewhere? It's okay if you're scared, I don't bite."

 _Well she does sounds kinda nice, I think. Maybe I should see who she is._ Aetius finally concluded as he wiped the last of his tears away and stood up, once he grabbed the book Blanc had lent to him. After that he began to slowly walk over to where he was hearing the voice, though he still opted to not speak up due to his shyness, which was winning over him again. A minute or two later the young boy arrived near the cold lake, and there he encountered most likely one of the most strangest young girl at that time.

She had fair-pale skin and violet eyes, her hair reached down the back to her upper spine with messy bangs framing her face, meanwhile her hair was in a big braid held with a pastel pink frilled ribbon. Her purple dress consisted of a loose powder blue top with a frilled neck segment and a long white section in the centre held with a white multi-piece belt with a purple piece, but most of this was covered up by a dark purple woolly jacket that reached down her arms and to her upper legs. The young girl appeared to be younger than Aetius by a few years, at least two or three at most. She was slowly walking around the area, her gaze moving here and there in an attempt to find Aetius – she had no idea who it was that was crying though.

However, once the young boy had stepped out into the open nervously, the strange girl looked over in his direction, then to his amazement she did not seem to be scared by his appearance, quite the opposite in fact. "Hey there. Were you the one that was crying and yelling just before?" she asked softly while slowly approaching him.

Aetius nodded with some heavy reluctance. "Y-Yeah, I was. Wh-Why were you even worried about it, though?"

"Well, whenever I hear someone cry and yell at the same time I get kinda worried about them. That's how I usually make friends, even with somebody called a 'tsundere', though I don't know what that means," she replied with a light-hearted yet ditzy giggle at the end. It was a stark contrast to Blanc, who had confided to Aetius that she was unable to make any friend, that and she was usually cold to everyone. The lavender haired girl noticed the surprised expression upon the young boy's face and spoke up about it. "Hmm? Is there something wrong? You're looking at me weirdly."

"Wh-Wha? Oh, s-sorry, it's just that not a lot of people treat me nicely, actually only a few others are extremely nice to me," Aetius responded, stuttering slightly as he spoke.

The young girl was rather surprised to hear this, and her expression and tone of voice indicated it. "Really? What for? You don't like like someone who's a troublemaker. Are you?"

"N-N-No! Not at all! It's just… my eyes. I was born with the eyes of a snake, literally. Just take a look already, I'm surprised that you haven't noticed it already," Aetius responded back, almost shouting it before developing into a quieter tone. "J-Just look already, then you'll find out and be disgusted as well."

The lavender haired girl walked up to Aetius with a curious gaze and stared directly at his eyes, analysing every detail that could be seen. It was rather discomforting for the snake-eyed boy. Eventually she drew back from the young boy, her expression being a mix between amazement and shock; however, that soon fell away back to her carefree smile. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. You seem nice."

"N-N-Nice? I'm… I'm nice? Really? I am" Aetius asked again and again, amazed that this young outsider even considered him to be a nice person just from views alone. It was rare for that to happen, as it was proven with Blanc and her mother Bellona. "Th-Thanks! Not a lot of people call me that around here, they mostly just glare at me or bully me constantly."

"They bully you? That's just mean," the girl responded with dissatisfaction, clearly feeling pity and sadness for the young boy standing before her. However, the aura around her started to change. Gone was the ditzy nature and cheerfulness that was easy to see and feel around her, in came a sadistic and scary feeling that flowed around the young girl. It freaked Aetius out to his very core.

"Um… e-e-excuse me, you're s-s-starting to scare m-me," the snake-eyed boy stuttered as he slowly began to walk back away from the young girl.

Soon enough, however, the lavender haired girl calmed down and noticed how frightened Aetius appeared to be. "Huh? Oh, sorry about that, I just don't like bullies," she replied, her scary and sadistic aura disappearing. Then the lavender haired girl gasped, as if she had forgotten something important. "Oh, that's right, I didn't say my name. I'm Plutia. What's yours?"

"A-Aetius. My name is Aetius," the young, ice blue haired boy responded with a small smile while rubbing the back of his head. He was happy to meet someone else who had no sense of prejudice towards him just for his simple different appearance and meekness. "Nice to meet you, Plutia. Um, does this make us… you know, f-f-friends or something?"

Much to his surprise, though also to his relief, the lavender haired girl nodded. "Uh huh. I like having friends, like a lot," Plutia replied, giving the snake-eyed boy a bright smile that made him blush. However, this conversation only lasted shortly when Plutia suddenly remembered something important. "Oh! That's right, I just remembered that my mum is lost somewhere in town. I got to find her before she realises that I'm missing. I'll have to see you later, Aetius."

This made the young boy feel incredibly sad, but he chose to not to try to make the young girl stay for a bit longer, instead choosing to remain selfless. "Well, okay then, good luck with finding your mum. Will… will we see each other again?"

Plutia nodded enthusiastically. "Uh huh. We can meet here again tomorrow if I can; me and my mum are staying here for a few weeks for some reason. See you later, Aetius!" With that said and done, Plutia walked away while waving at the young boy, smiling at the same time.

 _Plutia is pretty nice, I like her so far. I wonder if she and Blanc will be friends if they meet together here with me tomorrow, or the day after that? Would be pretty cool._ Aetius thought to himself with a cheerful outlook towards the future. He was soon interrupted by someone tapping his shoulder, causing him to turn around to see who it was.

It was Blanc. The young girl was carrying a bag full of books and a tired look was upon her expressionless face. "Sorry for being late, Aetius, I forgot to get a couple of books that you would like," the brown haired girl apologised, bowing slightly in a polite manner. She then noticed the cheerful expression upon the young boy's face. "Hmm? You look pretty happy; that's pretty unusual to see from you. Did something happen?"

Much to Blanc's surprise, Aetius nodded. "Sure did. I made a new friend today, just a couple of minutes ago before you arrived. Her name is Plutia, and she's staying in town for a few weeks. She wants to hang out with me tomorrow or the day after that."

However, much to the young boy's confusion, Blanc did not seem to take to the news as well as he had hoped she would a few minutes ago in his thoughts. "Plutia? A girl? Seriously? Hmm…" She then began to mumble to herself in a low and less than friendly tone, her eyes narrowing while she bit her lower lip.

"Blanc? Are you okay there? You're spacing out, plus you're making me worried here," the snake-eyed boy asked with heavy concern.

"I'm fine," Blanc responded harshly before walking off towards the hedge where the entrance to their secret sanctuary was located. Her tone of voice merely confused the young boy, which just made him all the more concerned for her. Nevertheless, he knew from past experience that to continue asking Blanc about what was bothering her would lead to an occasional whack over the head and some harsh words. With that in mind Aetius decided to calm the young girl down by reading to her and being his usual friendly self.

* * *

 **A/N: About time I got this over and done with, and I'm glad that I did. A few of you have been clamouring for Plutia to be introduced as a potential friend for Aetius and possibly even for Blanc as well, and that was good enough for me. I was going to introduce Plutia a bit later, but I figured that a couple of more chapters merely focusing on Aetius and Blanc would start to get a bit repetitive and boring, so this was a good opportunity to introduce everybody's favourite sadist in child form. One can only wonder how this will turn out for the next few chapters. Now then, if you have any suggestions or ideas then please do inform me about it, and have yourselves a good day if you can.**


	7. Friends or Rivals?

**Chapter 7: Friends or Rivals?**

"Um, are you sure that you're mum is all right with this, Blanc?" Aetius asked the young, brown haired girl as the two of them read their own separate books side by side each other while up against the large tree in their secluded hideaway. The snake-eyed boy was highly concerned with a recent development about a new intrigue with Bellona, and he had a good reason to be concerned about what was going on with her.

Blanc simply nodded in response before speaking up to him about it. "Yes, she perfectly all right with it, Aetius, no need to get overly worried about it like you usually do when something different happens. If she wants to do it then let her do it, it will help you with your education – at least that was what she said anyway. Just accept it already, my mum means well."

The issue at hand was Bellona wanting to help finance the young boy's education at the local school. By the time that Bellona had offered to finance the education of Aetius, the school was supposed to be open, except that it was not. Instead, the heating had gone bonkers and overloaded, then there was a flood in a few of the rooms, which then caused a lot of other issues with circuitry. It would take a couple of weeks to fully repair, so that meant a few more weeks of free time for all of the students, Blanc included; she, however, preferred to care more about reading books and protecting Aetius from bullies rather than focus on preparing for school again.

When the topic of school had been discussed a while back with Aetius, Bellona had been informed that the young boy, and even his sister, was home-schooled by his dad – it had mixed results overall. Therefore, Blanc's mother decided that she would pay money for Aetius to have a proper education like any other child in the town.

"But wouldn't it cost a lot of money to get me into the school? I d-don't want to be a burden for you and Miss Bellona. Th-Then there's all those people at the school: bullies, unsympathetic teachers, people who wouldn't like me in general, the list goes on," the ice-blue haired boy explained to Blanc, his tone of voice slowly becoming more depressed as he spoke. It was a worrying thought for the young boy, considering that he had never been to a school before, that and just about nearly everybody in the town despised him – even distant relatives on his father's side of the family knew of Aetius and merely thought of him as some sort of devil spawn.

However, he was quickly comforted by Blanc, who smiled warmly at him while patting his head – she always liked doing that due to how soft his ice-blue hair was. "Hey, it'll be okay, Aetius. I can beat up the people who try to pick on you, I always have to do that around here anyway. Also my mum said that she used to be a monster hunter, so she's pretty rich. If my mum wanted to she could buy most of the town and still have some money left over to spend on something else."

"R-Really? Huh, never knew she was a monster hunter," the young boy said in a surprised tone; and a surprise it was indeed, for he had no idea that Blanc's mother was once a monster hunter, in fact it was extremely difficult to tell due to the lack of any weapons and armour, or even scars for that matter.

"Mmhm. Mum told me that she started being a monster hunter from a young age, around fifteen years old I think. She travelled the world while doing her job, taking care of monsters in every place that she came across, and then get paid a lot for it. Mum even told me that she never failed a job. She told me that a lot of the monsters were vicious, especially the human-looking ones." Blanc seemed quite proud of her mother's achievements as a monster hunter, and Aetius could not blame the brown haired girl for it.

However, there was an alarm ringing at the back of his head, telling him that there could be more to Bellona's former occupation than meets the eye, mostly with what Blanc said about the 'human-looking' monsters. "Human-looking? Wh-What do you mean by that?"

The blue-eyed girl merely shrugged. "I don't know, mum didn't like to answer that one when I asked her about it, said something about it being too terrible to remember. I don't like it when mum doesn't properly answer questions."

The conversation about education, bullies and Bellona's past occupation as a freelancer monster hunter died off soon afterwards, leaving Aetius and Blanc to read in peace and quiet again for a while. The book that the young boy was reading was another one of Blanc's books, and from the look of it the novel was also written by an amateur writer; the snake-eyed boy wanted to bring the subject up but always forgot. Blanc, meanwhile, was reading a book about the history of the Goddesses – the CPUs of Gamindustri. The topic always fascinated her for reasons that Aetius could not properly understand, so as a result the young girl read as much as she could find concerning the subject of CPUs. The only clue that Aetius had concerning Blanc's apparent fascination with the Goddesses of old was something involving where they originally came from; it was obviously the CPU Memories as the young boy pointed out, but Blanc retorted back that there was more to their history than simply some energised piece of rock, no matter how powerful it they were.

As the two of them continued to read their books, Aetius began to think about Plutia, the young girl who he ran into yesterday and promised to hang out with the day after. She had not arrived, at least not yet anyway. The young boy had waited for the lavender haired girl to show up by the lake as promised, but only Blanc arrived as per usual. When the brown haired bookworm was informed by Aetius about the promise he made to Plutia the other day he noticed how unsatisfied her expression was, which only made the snake-eyed boy feel guilty. Soon after that Blanc convinced the young boy to simply give up on waiting and instead read a couple of books in their secluded sanctuary, although it still worried the young boy that Plutia was out there wondering where they were. He then made his thoughts clear to Blanc, hoping that she would understand his worries about it all.

"Hey, Blanc, should we go and look for Plutia? She could be lost for all we know," Aetius asked the young, brown haired girl.

Blanc shook her head, her expression becoming full of discontent due to the question that Aetius asked. The blue-eyed bookworm was not all that comfortable knowing that her only friend had just made a brand new friend without her even being there to see who it was; she was worried that this Plutia person was going to use Aetius for some unspeakable deed, or was playing a prank on him from the very beginning, that and one other reason that she found hard to explain even to herself. "No, it's better to leave the whole thing alone; just let her be," was her response. "Besides, you said that she was forgetful, so maybe she forgot to come around to hang out with you today."

"B-But what if she didn't forget and is waiting out there by the lake? I-I don't want to be someone who breaks promises," the young boy retorted with a slight stutter in his words. He placed a bookmark in his novel, set it down on the ground, stood up and began to walk over to the entrance within the thick and high bushy hedge to return to the outside world and make way for the cold late.

The young girl was less than amused, in fact she was starting to become rather annoyed with how caring Aetius was to someone he barely knew at all. She shook her head and sighed in annoyance while placing her book down at the base of the large tree she was leaning up against. "You truly are an idiot, Aetius. Guess I might as well go with you if you really want to see this foreigner who 'befriended'. Just why are you so friendly with everyone, even if they are mean to you?"

"Because I'm just a nice person. It's probably what my mother wanted me to be as well, though I never actually seen her, so I can only guess," Aetius responded as he began to crawl through the hedged entrance, his tone of voice becoming rather serious as he spoke. It was not often that he sounded like that, usually he just sounded shy or, in the words of some bullies, a 'wimp'.

Nonetheless, Blanc was moved by the young boy's answer. She had never heard of anyone being nice just for the sake of it. She shook her head and sighed while continuing to follow the young boy, although she had a new-found respect for the ice-blue haired boy and his morals, even if they were hard to accept half the time, especially when concerning people he barely knew at all – it was easy for Blanc to worry about him. Once they had crawled through the hedge and back out into the open, Aetius began to look around the place for Plutia, believing her to be somewhere nearby; it did not make things easy for Blanc's mind.

"Hello? Plutia? You out here somewhere?" the snake-eyed boy called out loudly around him, hoping that the lavender haired girl was around somewhere.

"Must you shout, Aetius? I don't want anyone coming down here to see what's going on, especially the bullies who beat you up constantly," Blanc grumbled as she crossed her arms and stared sternly at her only friend, believing that he was not only wasting their special time together but also she was distrustful towards Plutia, despite not not knowing her at all.

"Well how else is Plutia supposed to hear me if I don't shout?" he retorted back, although his tone of voice was still as calm and polite as ever. It was something that Blanc found endearing and annoying at the same time. "Plutia? Hello? You there?"

It took another few minutes of shouting before someone answered. "Huh? Aetius? Is that you?"

Much to Blanc's distaste, the young boy's face lit up brightly with excitement. It was Plutia, much to the snake-eyed boy's relief. "Hey, Plutia, we're over here by the lake!"

And indeed it was Plutia. The lavender haired girl was just up the dirt track where Aetius had first heard the young foreigner the other day, wandering about aimlessly; it was as if she had just about forgotten where she was and why she was there in the first place. When Plutia locked eyes with Aetius a large, friendly smile appeared across her face, then she ran up to the young boy, her smile growing ever more excited than before. "Hey there, Aetius. How are you feeling?" she asked while recovering her breath.

"I'm going pretty well, didn't run into any bullies today, though that was probably because of Blanc scaring them off," Aetius responded cheerfully. Soon afterwards he appeared to have had an idea. The young boy then proceeded to look back at Blanc and smile at her, which only caused her to look at him with a confused gaze, even Plutia seemed to be confused with what was going on. "Plutia, meet Blanc, a good friend of mine, the first friend I ever made; she's friendly when you get to know her well like me. Blanc, meet Plutia, she's the friend I told you about yesterday; you'll like her."

"I very much doubt it, you idiot," Blanc grumbled in an almost quiet tone, although fortunately for the brown haired girl no one actually heard what she had just said, otherwise she would have had to put up with a mildly upset Aetius and incredibly confused Plutia. Blanc was silently glad upon realising that no one heard what she said, otherwise it would have been a disaster for her. Quickly after that she spoke up, but this time much more politely than before. "H-Hello, I'm Blanc. Nice to meet you, Plutia."

It was not obvious on the surface, but the young brown haired girl was _not_ having a good time with what was going on. There was a mix of feelings rushing through her mind, but it was hard ofr her to distinguish which was which and how she truly felt about Aetius and Plutia. The foreigner – for it was easy to tell that Plutia was one – did not seem like a bad person at first sight, so that was a relief to her. Blanc was obviously worried for the snake-eyed boy's safety; that was one of her main priorities. The other priority was simply to have a lot of friends, though that was turning into a singular goal of having only one friend, a best friend. Aetius was to be just that. _Well, I guess I'll just have to put up with this for now. Plutia doesn't seem to be all that bad._ Blanc thought to herself, finally coming to a conclusion about Plutia, for now at least.

"Hello there, Blanc, nice to meet you, too," the lavender haired girl replied back, waving at the bookworm at the same time. "Are you a good friend of Aetius as well?"

"Of course I am, Aetius has trouble making friends, and… so do I, that basically makes us compatible to be friends," was Blanc's response.

"You're making us sound like a couple from one of your books; I think it was one of the books you lent me a week ago. That had a lot of… um, romance in it, and something like this went on in that book, too," Aetius asked innocently, his gaze falling back to Blanc. It was only recently that Blanc had to get her mother to explain what romance was like, to an extent. Aetius and Blanc knew what boyfriends and girlfriends were, but that was just about all that the young boy knew about romance as a whole.

For Blanc, however, she understood perfectly what was going on, and what Aetius meant. Her cheeks blushed bright red, her words stuttered and she swung her hands around in a hurry. "B-B-But we're n-not a couple, not at all! D-Don't get any funny ideas, Aetius!"

The young boy was surprised with how the conversation had turned, so much so that he backed off a little and tried to calm down Blanc from afar. "Of c-course we aren't l-l-like that at all. N-No need to get all angry like that, Blanc, you're scaring me here."

That was enough for Blanc to start calming down, that and Plutia was starting to pat the young boy's back affectionately in an attempt to cheer him up, so that was enough reason to try and calm down; simply seeing the lavender haired girl being all friendly and just about hands-on with Aetius did not sit well with Blanc, not at all. "I-I-I'm sorry for raising my voice, Aetius, really I am. How a-about we just read a couple of books and just forget about this?"

"Sounds good to me," Aetius sighed happily, his expression cheering up just as a light breeze blew through the area, scattering some leaves all over the place and even into the cold water of the lake. The prospect of reading a couple of books sounded enticing to say the least. The young boy then looked over at Plutia and gave her a small smile while jabbing his thumb in the direction of the secret sanctuary. "Want to come with us? Me and Blanc have a cool place where hang out and read books; oh, and I'm also trying to build a little shack there as well, though it isn't going as I thought it would."

It seemed like a good idea to Plutia, who nodded in response before speaking. "Uh huh, I like secret spots, and secrets as well. What does it look like?"

"See for yourself. Come on, you're going to like it!" Aetius appeared to be rather excited with the prospect of showing off his and blanc's sanctuary to Plutia, and for good reason too. It was not everyday that the young boy had the opportunity to show off anything to anyone, let alone someone he ad only just made a friend with the other day; it just simply made Aetius feel happy, as well as wanted and accepted. It was no wonder that he felt absolute joy with being around Blanc and Plutia, both of whom treating him so far as a normal human being.

Aetius led the two young girls back in the direction of the hidden sanctuary, were along the way Blanc kept glancing back at Plutia, who was more or less focusing her eyes upon the ice-blue haired boy and her surroundings. It appeared as if the brown haired bookworm did not yet completely trust Plutia, not entirely anyway. _Just put up with it, it isn't as if she has anything against Aetius; hell, I doubt she can even read, judging from how ditzy she seems to be. Just keep calm about it, just keep calm._ _Plutia seems friendly enough, so I guess she won't try to ruin me and Aetius' friendship any time soon. Still, got to keep an eye on her._ Blanc thought to herself as they crawled through the hole in the hedge and entered the sanctuary.

"Well, here we are. What do you think of the place, Plutia?" Aetius asked the distzy, lavender haired girl, who appeared to be rather awestruck with the beauty of the area.

"Wow. This is… cool. Really cool, Aetius, I love it," the violet-eyed girl responded, her words almost quiet as her breath was taken away by the sight of were she found herself in.

"It is, isn't it? Almost had the same reaction when I first saw this place for the first time when I befriended Aetius," Blanc informed Plutia, a small smile on her face as she gazed at the beauty that nature had given to the relatively small yet secluded area. "So then, what do you like to read, Plutia? That is if you actually can."

"Don't worry, I can read a bit. I learned a bit from my mum," the lavender haired girl replied along with a smile. Yet there was something else to her smile, something that Blanc quickly caught on to. As a result, the two of them kept exchanging suspicious smiles and glances at one another, as if there was something going on between them.

Aetius was oblivious to this development, instead he was more focused on scavenging through the nearby trunk – which was located underneath a small roof he had built around a part of the tree and out towards a ramble shack wall – for a couple of good books for Plutia to read. As the young boy took out a few books from the bottom of the trunk he came across a rather old book that he had never seen before, so the snake-eyed boy quickly deduced that it was from Blanc's collection. It was a mildly big book with plenty of old pages in it, which only excited the young boy even more than before, so he opened it and took a look at the contents.

At first it looked more like a jumble of old texts put together for the sake of reading it for some unknown purpose, but as the young man continued to read it while also unintentionally ignoring Blanc and Plutia he soon began to realise that there was more to the book than there appeared to be. For a start it seemed rather religious, for it spoke of a Lord, Revelations, Prophesies and names of some people. It looked as if it was a holy book for some peculiar cult, a very old one at that. _Maybe I'll ask Blanc about it, looks like it must have come from her home._ The young boy thought as he closed the book and lowered the lid of the trunk.

When Aetius turned around to speak to Blanc about the book he saw both her and Plutia having some sort of conversation, a rather peculiar one at that. It look like they were having a staring contest as they spoke, neither one of them blinking or flinching at the stare of the other. The aura around the two of them was far from pleasant, in fact it was almost scaring the death out of the young boy. "Uh huh, is that so? You're from the south? Well that explains a few things about you," Blanc stated as she crossed her arms in a defiant manner.

"Is that so? What is it then, Blanny? You sure are as cold as the weather," Plutia retorted back, her eyes becoming narrower while her smiled became thinned. Despite being a bit younger than Aetius and Blanc she knew how to argue, at least to a point anyway. It mainly just annoyed the hell out of Blanc, which was just what the lavender haired girl wanted at that point.

"I'm what? Cold? Hmph! Well at least I don't-" the brown haired bookworm was about to growl back, her face starting to show the anger bubbling inside her. However, Blanc was interrupted by the ice-blue haired boy, who was getting more than a bit concerned with what was brewing between Blanc and Plutia, both of whom looked as if they were about to unleash hell.

"E-Excuse me, Blanc and Plutia? Are you two okay? You both look kinda… odd," Aetius asked the two of them in a highly concerned tone, which was enough for them both to stop their argument and look back at the young boy.

"Uh huh, we're absolutely fine, Aetius. Isn't that right, Blanny?" the lavender haired girl responded first, smiling brightly at the young, ice-blue haired boy.

Blanc, on the other hand, still appeared to be rather unhappy about what was going on, especially when she witnessed Aetius smiling back at Plutia. But soon enough she relented to the pure innocent look upon the young boy's face. Blanc sighed, shook her head and looked back at Aetius with a faint smile. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get to reading already."

"Um, okay then, if you say so, Blanc," the young, snake-eyed boy responded as he watched the brown haired girl make her way to the trunk where the books were kept; she seemed to be I nal ess than favourable mood though, so the young boy chose not to further enrage her just by talking. Instead, Aetius looked over at Plutia, who had gone back to gazing at her surroundings in awe. "Excuse me, Plutia, what do you like to read?"

It took a moment for the lavender haired girl to realise that Aetius was asking her a question, so when Plutia realised what was going on she merely giggled out of embarrassment and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry for not hearing you just then, got distracted."

"That's okay, but what about books? What do you like to read?" Aetius asked again after he waved off Plutia's diztiness.

"What sort of books do I like to read? Um… I guess anything will do," Plutia finally replied after giving it some thought for a moment. It was a good enough answer for the young boy, for it meant that there was a wide range of books that he could lend to the forgetful girl before him.

"Well in that case I'll try to find you a book that you may like, so sit tight by the tree next to Blanc and I'll give you a book when I find a good one for you. Sound good to you?" the young boy asked, hoping he did not sound a bit too pushy. Fortunately for him, it looked as if he was not pushy at all, from what could be seen of Plutia's cheerful expression. With that settled the snake-eyed boy began to rummage through the trunk again, unaware that he was being closely watched by Blanc, who was constantly looking up at him from her book, eyeing him closely from time to time as he rummaged around for a suitable novel.

Eventually the young boy found a novel for Plutia – a book about an adventurer from an underground vault who suffers lose, anguish, triumph, hard decisions, and even aliens. Aetius had enjoyed reading it some time ago before he met Blanc, and even she had liked it when he lent it to her, so the snake-eyed boy presumed that Plutia would enjoy it as well. Once the novel was retrieved, the young boy closed the trunk and walked over to Plutia, who was staring up at the tree. Aetius tapped her shoulder and handed to her the book. "Here you go, found something that I think you might like. Has a bit of everything a wild adventure can have," the ice-blue haired boy said cheerfully.

"Oooohhh, thank you, Aetius," Plutia thanked the young boy before looking at the front and back cover; it appeared as if she liked the look of it, which was a relief to Aetius.

As soon as the young boy was satisfied he sat down by the base of the large tree and began to read the apparent holy book that he picked up from before. It was one interesting book, so interesting that he failed to notice Blanc and Plutia trying to get him to talk to them, so in the end there merely gave up and went back to their books. Aetius was just too deeply into the holy book. Some of the verses he got out of it just seemed otherworldly, others just sounded like hogwash, a few touched his heart. It was a religious book, not doubt about that, though what the religion was all about was unknown to him, for unfortunately some of the text had been damaged beyond reading. Burn marks, old red markings – which Aetius had no idea was old dried blood – and the weather itself had left their scars on the book, making some sections of the texts unreadable.

One of the texts in the book that Aetius was able to read was rather odd to him. ' _And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehend it not'. Huh, okay then… weird, but kinda cool at the same time._ _Gonna read some more of this._ The young boy thought to himself as he continued to read the book.

Blanc and Plutia, meanwhile, continued to read their books as they sat on either side of Aetius, though with a bit of space in between. The two of them kept steeling glances at one another from time to time, their eyes meeting each other in a mixed stare that made the two of them question each other's motives. Eventually, as they looked back at one another yet again, they both silently came to the same conclusion. _She may be a friendly person,_ _and maybe even a friend,_ _but she is a rival for Aetius' true friendship! I won't lose!_

* * *

 **A/N: It isn't often that I get a chapter of this story out over a week after I published a new chapter, it's a new record for me I reckon; I really got ahead of schedule, but don't expect it to last since I have other projects to get on with. There was going to be more to this chapter, but I decided that since Aetius and Plutia have only just become friends I decided that I would leave the true arguing, fighting and bonding for later down the road, be prepared for that in the future. For now, have a good day if you possibly can.**


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